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CONTENTS. 



PAGES 

The Wife— (Sarah) 7 

The Wife Unloved — (Hagar) 35 

The Partial and Intriguing Mother — (Rebekah) 68 

The Rival Sisters — (Leah and Rachel) 89 

The Affectionate Sister — (Miriam) 119 

The Prophetess — (Deborah) 171 

The Artful Woman — (Jezebel) 187 

The Ambitious Woman — (Athaliah) 205 

The Orphan Queen— (Esther) 231 



THE WIFE-SARAH. 




v ^Vt 



ITHIN a few centu- 
ries after the flood, 
while some who had 
witnessed the sin and 
the destruction of the 
ante d i 1 u v i a n worl d 
were still living, Je- 



hovah saw fit, in accordance with his de- 
signs of eternal wisdom, to separate Abra- 
ham from his brethren, calling upon him to 
leave the land of his birth and go out into a 



8 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

strange land, to dwell in a far country. He 
was to pass the rest of his days as a sojourner 
in a land which should be thereafter given to a 
people yet unborn, — to a nation which was to 
descend from him. 

Abraham was a lineal descendant of Shem, 
who was doubtless still living while " the father 
of Abraham yet abode with his kindred in 
the land of the Chaldees ;" and from the lips 
of his venerable progenitor, Abraham himself 
may have first received the knowledge of the 
true God, and have learned lessons of wisdom 
and obedience, as he sat at his feet. Shem 
may have conversed with Methuselah ; and 
Methuselah must have known Adam ; and 
from Adam, Methuselah may have heard that 
history of the creation and fall, which he nar- 
rated to Shem, and which Shem may have trans- 
mitted to Abraham ; and the history of the world 
would be thus remembered as the traditional 



THE WIFE — SARAH. tf 

recollections of a family, and repeated as the 
familiar remembrances of a single household. 

Tales of the loveliness of Eden, — of the glo- 
ries of the creation, — of the blessedness of the 
primeval state, — of the days before the fall ; re- 
membrances of the "mother of all living" in 
the days of her holiness, when she was as beauti- 
ful as the world created for her home, in all the 
dewy sweetness of the morning of its existence, 
— of the wisdom of man before he yielded to the 
voice of temptation, when authority was en- 
throned upon his brow, and all the tribes of 
the lower creation did him homage ; — of the 
good spirits who watched over to minister unto 
and bless them ; — of those dark, unholy and ac- 
cursed ones, who came to tempt, betray and de- 
stroy them, — were recounted as events of which 
those who described them had been the wit- 
nesses. And from the remembrances thus 
preserved and transmitted by tradition, each 



10 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

generation obscuring or exaggerating them, 
have descended what we call fables of antiquity, 
— great facts, now dimly remembered and darkly 
presented, as shadowed over by the mists of 
long ages. 

How must the hearts of the descendants 
of Shem have thrilled as they heard from him 
the history of by-gone times — of a world which 
had passed away ! How much had the great 
patriarch of his race, himself, beheld ? He 
had seen the glory and the beauty of the world 
before the flood. It was cursed for the sin 
of man, in the day of his fall — but slowly, as 
we measure time, do the woes denounced by 
God often take effect, and, though excluded from 
Eden, the first pair may have seen little change 
pass over the face of the earth. The consum- 
mation of this curse may have been the deluge ; 
and those who dwelt on the earth, before this 
calamity swept it with its destroying wing, may 



THE WIFE — SARAH. 11 

have seen it in much of its original beauty; 
while those who outlived that event witnessed 
a wonderful change. 

From that frail fabric, the ark, which proved 
the second cradle of the race, Shem had be- 
held a world submerged, — a race swept off by 
the floods of Almighty wrath. He had heard 
the shrieks of the drowning, the vain prayer 
of those who had scoffed the threatened ven- 
geance, the fruitless appeal of those who had 
long rejected mercy. As the waves bore up 
his frail vessel, he had seen the black and 
sullen waters settle over temples, cities and 
palaces ; and he had gazed until he could behold 
but one dark expanse of water, in whose turbid 
depths were buried all the families of the 
earth — save one. 

Those he had loved and honoured, and much 
which, perhaps, he had envied and coveted — 
the pride, the glory, the beauty of earth — all 



12 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

had passed away. And after the waters sub- 
sided, and the ark had found a resting-place, 
what a deep and sad solemnity must have 
mingled with the joy for their preservation. 

How strange the aspect the world present- 
ed ! How must the survivors have recalled 
past scenes and faces, to be seen no more ! 
How much they must have longed to recog- 
nise old familiar places, — the Eden of Adam 
and Eve, — the graves in which they had been 
laid ! For doubtless Seth and his descendants 
still remained with their first parents, while Cain 
went out from their presence and built a city 
in some place remote. The earth which Noah 
and his descendants repeopled was one vast 
grave ; and what wonder that those who built 
above a race entombed, should mingle fancy 
with tradition, and imagine that the buried 
cities and habitations were yet inhabited by the 
accursed and unholy. Such have been the 



THE WIFE — SARAH. 13 

fancies of those who darkly remembered the 
flood ; and as the wind swept through the ca- 
verns of the earth, the superstitious might still 
imagine that they heard the voices or the 
shrieks of the spirits imprisoned within. 

Shem seems to have far exceeded his bro- 
thers in true piety, and the knowledge of Jeho- 
vah was for many generations preserved among 
his descendants, while few or none of them ever 
sank into those deep superstitions which de- 
based the children of Ham. And it is beautiful 
to remark, that the filial piety which so pre- 
eminently marked him has ever been a promi- 
nent trait among all nations descended from 
him. Thus receiving his impressions of the 
power, the truth, the awful justice of Jehovah, 
from one well fitted to convey them, — and taught 
the certain fulfilment of promises and of threats, 
— Abraham was early inspired with that deep 
reverential and yet filial love, that entire con- 



14 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

fidence, which led to the trusting obedience 
which distinguished his character. 

Yet, from his very piety, sad must it have 
been when the command came to leave the plains 
of Mesopotamia, and go out a stranger and a 
pilgrim into distant lands, to become a dweller 
among those who were fast apostatizing from 
the true faith. "But by faith he obeyed," and 
by his obedience he has given us an example and 
illustration of faith, which has been held forth 
through all succeeding ages. To be the child 
of Abraham, to walk as he walked, is, after 
the lapse of thousands of years, the character- 
istic of the true worshipper of God. 

Guided by an Omniscient hand, trusting in 
an Almighty power, cheered by that mysterious 
promise, which, as a star of hope shining in the 
hour of deepest darkness, still rose to higher 
brightness as it guided the long line of pa- 
triarchs, kings, and prophets, until it settled 



THE WIFE — SARAH. 15 

over the manger of Bethlehem, and was lost 
in the full glory of the Sun of righteousness, 
— Abraham girded his loins and prepared for a 
departure to far distant lands. 

At first, attended by his father and brother, 
he sojourned with them in Haran; and the fa- 
mily pitched their tents in that spot which was 
to become in future ages the battle-ground 
of nations, when the proud eagle of imperial 
Rome was trailed in the dust, and her warriors 
and her nobles fell before their fiercer foes. 
Long ages have intervened since the tents of 
this Syrian family were pitched by the side of 
the waters of Charan; and midway between 
their days and ours, were these waters disco- 
loured with the blood of those who fell in the 
battle of Charae, so disastrous to Rome, ever 
haughty, and then exulting in the height of her 
prosperity. A few wandering shepherds now 
lead their flocks in the plain in which Sarah 



16 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

and Abraham dwelt, and where Cassius and his 
legions fell. But a short sojourn was per- 
mitted Abraham here. "Arise and depart, for 
this is not your rest" — and again he listened to 
the command from above, and gathered his 
flocks and servants, and girded his loins, and 
set his face towards the land promised to him, 
and to his seed after him. And now he left 
his father and his brethren, and went with his 
own family, the head of his house, the future 
patriarch of his race. 

Yet he was not alone. The wife of his 
youth was by his side. In all his wanderings, 
in all his cares, there was one with him to 
participate in his joys and to alleviate his 
sorrows. With him and for him, his wife 
forsook home, kindred and country. We doubt 
not that she too shared the faith of Abra- 
ham ; that she too trusted and loved and wor- 
shipped the God of Abraham, and of Shem, 



THE WIFE — SARAH. 17 

and of Noah. Like Abraham, a descendant of 
Shem, — like him too, she had been trained in 
the worship of Jehovah. Yet to the faith of 
the true believer, there was added the strong 
affection of the wife ; and while Abraham went 
out obeying God, Sarah followed, trusting God 
indeed, but leaning still upon her husband. In 
all her future life, she is presented to us the 
wife ; devoted, affectionate, submissive ; loving 
her husband with a true affection, and honour- 
ing him by a due deference. 

"With a beauty that fascinated kings, preserv- 
ing the charms of youth to the advanced period 
of her life, she still lived but for her husband ; 
and when even the faith of Abraham failed, and 
he withdrew from the wife the protection of the 
husband, and said, " She is my sister," Sarah ap- 
pears to have acquiesced in a deceit so unworthy 
of her husband and of herself, merely to insure 
his safety among the lawless tribes around them. 



18 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

As we read the story of Abraham's wife, we 
catch glimpses of ages and nations that were 
hoar with antiquity, and had passed away when 
our ancient historians began the record of the 
past. Nation after nation had perished and 
been forgotten before the profane historian be- 
gan his annals. Yet childless, still trusting 
in the promise of Jehovah, Abraham wandered 
for many years through the land which was to 
be given to him, and his seed after him. Now 
pitching his tent in Moreh ; then building his 
altar at Bethel ; then driven by famine into 
Egypt ; then returning to his altar at Bethel, — 
and there separating from his nephew Lot, be- 
cause " the land could not bear" both, he fixes his 
abode in Hebron. 

No pictures of pastoral life are more beau- 
tiful than those presented in Genesis ; and while 
we contemplate the character of Abraham, we 
catch occasional glimpses of his household, 



THE WIFE — SARAH. 19 

and of the manners of his age. We see him 
exercising forbearance and relinquishing the 
rights of a superior, that there might be no 
strife between him and his too worldly rela- 
tive. We see him leading out his own band 
as a prince, to rescue that same relative, — 
who, tempted by the promise of large wealth, 
had chosen a location full of dangers, — and, in 
the hour of victory, refusing all spoil and showing 
all honour to the priest of the most high God. 

Again he is before us, sitting in his tent 
in the heat of the day, and hastening to receive 
strangers, — " thus entertaining angels una- 
wares," — and then interceding for that city 
doomed to destruction for the wickedness of the 
dwellers therein. 

And again he appears as the prince, the 
patriarch, the head of his own family, and 
high in honour with those around him, ever 
observing all the decorum and proprieties of 



20 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

oriental life. We see him, too, as one who 
walked with God ; as the priest of his house- 
hold, presenting the morning and the evening 
sacrifice ; as holding high communion with God 
in the hours of darkness; entering into that 
covenant which is still pleaded by those who 
claim the promise, " I will be a God to thee, 
and to thy seed after thee." 

This promise of a seed, from which was to 
spring a great nation, " like to the stars of 
heaven in number," was frequently repeated, 
yet still deferred. Youth, manhood, middle 
age, all had passed, and still no child blest the 
tents of Sarah ; and while Abraham still be- 
lieved, and it " was accounted to him for right- 
eousness," Sarah seems to have felt that not 
upon her was to be conferred the distinction of 
becoming the mother of the promised seed. 
"With the warm impulse of the woman, she sa- 
crificed the feelings of the wife and the instincts 



THE WIFE — SARAH. 21 

of the heart, to promote what she doubtless 
believed to be the plan of God and the happi- 
ness of Abraham. There is a deficiency of 
faith as much to be manifested in the forestall- 
ing the plans of Providence as in the denial 
of the promises of God : and while Abraham 
still trusted and waited the fulfilment of the 
promise, Sarah sought, by her own device, to 
accomplish prophecy and insure the blessing. 

In accordance with the usages of those around 
her, she gave her handmaid to her husband to 
be his wife, " that their children might bless 
her age." She doubtless felt herself strong 
enough in love to Abraham and to Hagar to 
believe that her affection would embrace their 
children. But when the trial came, and all 
the instincts of the heart, all the feelings of 
the wife revolted, she proved that this violation 
of a heaven-appointed institution brings only 
sorrow and strife. Yet there was no alien- 



22 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

ation between Sarah and Abraham. The wife 
of his youth was ever dearer to him than the 
mother of his child. 

At length, however, the promise was fulfilled. 
Sarah became a mother. Many years had 
passed since she had left the home of her 
fathers. The days of man were now much 
abridged, and she was fast approaching the 
ordinary limit of human life ; but we may sup- 
pose her cheek was still fair and her brow 
smooth, and that she still retained much of the 
beauty of youth. 

With a wondering joy, Sarah gazed upon 
the child so long desired — the child in whose 
seed " all the nations of the earth" were to 
be "blessed." And she said, " God hath made 
me to laugh, so that all who hear shall laugh ;" 
and while those that heard that Sarah " had 
borne Abraham a son in his old age," won- 
dered at an event so strange, Abraham must 



THE WIFE — SARAH. 23 

have pondered the prophecy which had revealed 
to him the destiny of his race, — perhaps fore- 
seeing that Star which was to rise in a still 
distant age, and apprehending, however dimly 
and faintly, something of the mysterious con- 
nection between the birth of the child and the 
promise given in the hour of the curse — the 
blending of the fate of his race with the eter- 
nal plan of mercy and redemption. 

There is an instinct in our natures which 
leads us to rejoice at a birth ; but, could Sarah 
have foreseen the destiny of her race, tears 
would have mingled with her smiles. Won- 
derful has been the past history of that people, 
strange their present condition, while the fu- 
ture may develop mysteries still more incom- 
prehensible. 

In the hour of rejoicing over the new-born 
babe, past transgression brought forth its legiti- 
mate fruits. Sullenness and strife were brood- 



24 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

ing in the bosoms of the Egyptian bond-woman 
and her son ; and the quiet eye of the mother 
saw all the danger arising from the jealous 
hate and rivalry of the first-born of Abraham. 

If the decision was stern, it was needful. 
" Cast out the bond-woman and her child, for 
her son shall not be heir with my son, even with 
Isaac." Harsh words, — but it is better to dwell 
peacefully asunder, than together in strife and 
bitterness. The malignant passions which led 
Ishmael to mock, might soon be stimulated by 
the mother to murder, — chafed and irritated as 
she was by the constant presence of the child 
who had supplanted her own. From the time 
of the departure of Hagar from the household 
of Abraham, peace seems to have rested upon 
it. Prosperity attended him. He no longer 
wandered from place to place. He remained in 
Hebron, sojourning with Sarah and her child. 

Many years passed, — years of peaceful quiet 



, THE WIFE — SARAH. 25 

and happiness seldom allotted to such an age, — 
while they trained their child in the nurture 
of the true God, and were honoured by the 
princes around him, who sought to enter into 
league with him, for they saw that " God 
blessed him in all that he did." 

Once again God saw fit to test the faith of 
Abraham by calling upon him to offer his son 
— his only son Isaac, whom he loved — as a 
sacrifice ; and Abraham obeyed the divine 
command, and thus doing, uttered that pro- 
phecy which has thrilled so many souls, " God 
will himself provide a sacrifice." In this triaL 
Sarah seems not to have been called to parti- 
cipate. The mother was spared the agony of 
feeling that her only child was to be offered as 
a sacrifice — that the hope of her life was to 
perish. 

" Sarah was an hundred and twenty years 
old, and she died." The dark shadow of death 



26 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

is, sooner or later, to fall upon each household. 
Abraham seems to have been at a distance — per- 
haps in the charge of some of his numerous 
flocks — when he was recalled to Hebron by news 
of Sarah's death. And he came to mourn over 
her. The remembrance of her maiden beauty 
and modesty, the grateful recollection of all her 
conjugal devotedness, filled his soul. If light 
and immortality were brought to light in the 
gospel, still the divine rays were faintly reflected 
in the former dispensation, and the eye of faith 
even then penetrated the thick darkness of the 
grave. 

And now, after these long years of pro- 
mise and waiting, Abraham takes possession 
of the land which God had given to him and 
to his seed. He asks, however, but a small 
portion, — a tomb, a place for his dead, — and a 
more beautiful description of a scene of mutual 
deference, of regard for rights and respect for 



THE WIFE — SARAH. 27 

character and position, was never penned than 
that which records the negotiation between the 
bereaved patriarch and the children of Heth. 
With the touch of magic, the whole scene is 
before us. The bereaved patriarch, courteous 
in grief, bowing in the presence of the sons of 
Heth, — the deep respect, the kindly sympathy, 
manifested by those who, strangers to his reli- 
gion, felt the claims of his character, — mingled 
with that deep awe which the visitation of 
death ever inspires. 

The last scene was now over, and Sarah has 
first taken possession of that home to which she 
was to be followed by her husband and their 
descendants. One by one they take their places 
by her side, — unwelcomed, unquestioned, — 

"Where none have saluted and none have replied," — 

and yet where all are gathered at last. We see 
her not as a sister or a daughter. She is not 



28 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

known to us in the house of her father. Sarah 
is only presented to us as the wife of Abraham. 
And as a wife the apostle has held her up to her 
own sex as a model and example. " Even as 
Sarah obeyed her husband, calling him lord," 
— exclaims the apostle, exhorting the wife to due 
deference. The deep, fervent affection of the 
heart led to that outward manifestation of 
honour so beautiful and becoming ; and as the 
only love which can be enduring is that which 
is founded on respect, so it is the highest hap- 
piness of the wife to be able truly to honour 
him whom she is bound to love and obey. 

When the heads of a household are thus 
united in warm affection and mutual respect, 
the influence will pervade the whole circle, and 
the family of Abraham presented a beautiful 
picture of such a household. The numerous 
members composing a large family were go- 
verned by one who provided for their suste- 



THE WIFE — SARAH. 29 

nance, led them forth for the defence of rights. 
or the redress of injuries, or the rescue of the 
captive ; and who officiated as the priest as 
well as ruler of his household. In such a com- 
munity, the character of the head would be 
impressed upon the whole people ; and it was 
with obvious meaning that Jehovah exclaimed, 
" I know him that he will command his house- 
hold after him." It was by example that ad- 
monition was made availing. And the wife 
was ever ready, with her ardent and trusting 
love, to aid and co-operate. Hastening, when 
he welcomed the stranger, to prepare the feast, 
she was ever ready to receive his guests and 
add her efforts to his hospitality. 

Hatred, strife, and mutual alienation so often 
cloud over the unison of wedded life, and cause 
its sun to set in darkness, that few spectacles 
can be presented more beautiful or more de- 
lightful than the old age of wedded life, soothed 



30 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

by true affection and mutual kindness. It is 
more touching than the glow of youthful passion. 
It proclaims the presence of high moral worth. 
It is never found in the habitations of the un- 
holy. The love which thus survives the glow 
of youth, which bears the storms and the trials 
of life, must be founded on truth, on unimpas- 
sioned esteem, on approved integrity ; and 
those alone who love God supremely, love each 
other unselfishly. 

While Sarah honoured her husband, she too 
was treated with proper deference. Her coun- 
sels were ever heeded, her voice had its due 
influence, and he still deferred to her wishes. 
It is beautiful to note the increasing esti- 
mation in which she is held. Sarai, "the 
mistress," betokened her station as the head 
of a household ; and as years brought honours, 
and an enlarged sphere of duty, and a more 
elevated position among the people around 



THE WIFE — SARAH. 31 

them, Sarai was changed into Sarah — my lady. 
Her husband, in addressing the former Sarai 
as Sarah, "my lady," gracefully returned the 
honour she bestowed when she called him "lord." 
By such manifestation of mutual respect and 
love, the chain of family affection is kept bright. 
As the household of Abraham was the house- 
hold of faith, ordained as the model for all ages, 
it is well to analyze the elements which com- 
posed it, and to trace their combined influence. 
There was the conjugal union of the true wor- 
shippers of Jehovah, animated by the same hopes, 
governed by the same principles, whose hearts 
were united in the strong bonds of natural 
affection. There was the confiding, unfailing 
affection, the deep, reverential respect, and due 
obedience of the wife. There was the tender 
love, protecting care, the unwavering faith, the 
honourable deference of the husband. The reli- 
gion of this household was the religion of faith 



32 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

and of obedience, — a religion winch led them 
to forsake all at the command of God, which 
taught them to rely upon his promises, to fear 
his threatenings, to plead his grace, to trust his 
mercy, while it was a religion which led to a 
due observance of all the relative duties of life, 
which taught the exercise of that impartial jus- 
tice, careful benevolence, disinterested kindness, 
and ready hospitality to those without the 
family; and of steady love, of affectionate 
kindness, of sympathetic forbearance to the 
members of the household within. The family 
of faith, where faith is pure, will ever be a 
family of love; and as true piety is the best 
security for family happiness, so family love is 
the best nurse for family piety. 

There are many families among us who aim 
at being families of faith, who profess to walk 
in the steps of Abraham, to imitate his exam- 
ple. Let such not confine themselves to the 



THE WIFE — SARAH. 33 

manifestation of his peculiar faith, to his trust 
and dependence alone. Let them walk as he 
walked before his household, in the fear of God 
and the love of man, in the careful fulfilment 
of every relative and social duty, in the daily 
exemplification of a tender and loving spirit, 
carefully avoiding or removing all sources of 
division. Let that piety which unites them to 
God, be a bond, encircling all and drawing 
them near to each other. 

By the cultivation of the simple domestic 
virtues, by the daily, quiet, self-denying trials, 
by the observance of the thousand decencies, 
the unaffected proprieties, the unostentatious 
efforts to bless and comfort, — by the elevating 
influence of personal example, — by the breath- 
ing atmosphere of a holy spirit, — the family is 
to be made the household of faith, the nursery 
of the church. 

Direct instruction and formal efforts and 



34 THE WIFE — SARAH. 

stated observances are neither to be forgotten 
nor to be remitted ; but these can only be made 
effectual by the living exemplification of a 
spirit of love, a life of holiness. It will ever 
be found true that he who prays most loves 
most. 







HAGAR— THE WIFE UNLOVED. 



The Hebrew patriarch led his flocks and 
herds, surrounded by his large household, from 
Haran to the land of the Canaanites; from 
thence to that of the Philistines, down into 
Egypt; wherever so numerous a family and 
such large flocks could find sustenance — water 
and herbage. And as he thus sojourned, many 
of the poor of these lands flocked to him for 
employment and support ; and while he bought 
the services of the parents, the children born 
in his house became members of his family, 
were trained as his servants, and were subject to 
his authority as the master of the household, 
the prince among his people, the patriarch of 
his tribe. 



36 HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 

And among these was Ilagar, the Egyptian. 
We are not told whether she was born in the 
house of Abraham, or rescued from those who 
may have stolen her from her home, or given 
by her parents to the wealthy and childless 
Sarai. She was Sarah's handmaid — a relation, 
according to the customs of the East (almost 
immutable) nearly as dear as that of a child. 
She was the personal attendant, the constant 
companion of her mistress ; and by her was 
doubtless instructed in the principles of the true 
religion, while she was thus accustomed to the 
accomplishments and occupations of the age. 
The tasks of the favourite handmaids of East- 
ern families are still light. To sit at the feet 
of her mistress with her embroidery ; to cheer 
her with the simple music of the shepherd's 
tent; to aid her in those domestic duties to 
which Sarah gave her own superintendence ; 
to assist in preparing the wool of the flocks 



" 



HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 57 

for the garments of the family ; to watch her 
tent as she reposed by day, and keep by her 
side as the camels slowly wandered through 
the valleys in search of pure streams or more 
abundant herbage, were probably the occupa- 
tions and duties of Hagar. 

Years thus passed on — and the dark-browed 
and dark-eyed Egyptian maiden had grown into 
womanhood, and the freshness of youth, the 
joyousness of health and early life were her's. 
while her mistress was passing into age. Sarah 
no longer hoped to become a mother, and, be- 
lieving that the promise was not intended for 
her, she urged Abraham to take another wife, 
oifering for his acceptance her own handmaid, 
the Egyptian Hagar. 

The authority of the mistress of the East 
over her own establishment is so absolute, the 
husband so interdicted from all interference,, 
that, although Hagar had passed hor youth 



38 HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 

with Sarah, she may have been hardly noticed 
by Abraham until Sarah proffered her. Ac- 
cording to the usage of the east, Sarah had 
a right (the right then claimed by the parent) 
thus to dispose of her handmaid ; and a mar- 
riage with her master was the highest honour 
which could, be bestowed on Hagar. She 
was given to Abraham to be his wife, and, the 
relation was — according to the usage then pre- 
vailing — as legal as that sustained by Sarah, 
although the station was inferior. No injury 
was intended to Hagar. No higher distinction 
could have been conferred upon her, and, strong 
in love to both Hagar and Abraham, Sarah 
doubtless supposed she might be able to wel- 
come and love their children, though denied 
offspring of her own. 

But such departure from the law, precept, or 
institution of God, involves a long train of 
sin and sorrow, no matter what the intention — 



HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 39 

and the union of Abraham with Hagar was a 
direct violation of the institution of marriage 
in all its principles and intentions, and it could 
not but bring confusion and strife to the tent 
of the patriarch. 

It was merely a marriage of interest and 
convenience, unhallowed by love. The heart 
of Abraham never departed from the wife of 
his youth, nor could Sarah ever have intended 
to relinquish her hold upon his affection. It is 
the last claim a woman foregoes. And on the 
other hand, Hagar could have felt no love for 
her master, so much her superior in age and 
station. Unholy pride and rank ambition were 
all the feelings which such an alliance could 
awaken in the heart of Hagar. Yet Hagar was 
the least blameworthy, and, perhaps, not even- 
tually the greatest sufferer. By the customs of 
society, she had no voice in the disposal of her- 
self. Her heart was never consulted. She 



40 HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 

was only allowed to receive the husband allotted 
to her — to acquiesce in the decision of others. 

The natural results of such a union fol- 
lowed. The exaltation of Hagar excited her 
pride and led to arrogance ; and when she 
knew that she should become a mother, her 
childless mistress was despised. 

It is hard to bear contempt from those upon 
whom we have lavished kindness ; to feel that 
we have exalted those who despise us : and all 
the indignation of Sarah was roused by the 
assumption and ingratitude of Hagar ; and, with 
the quick instinct of the woman, she retorted 
upon her husband, " My wrong be upon thee." 

A stranger indifference could not have been 
manifested than that showed by Abraham to- 
wards the youthful wife who should have now 
received his protection and kindness. " Behold 
thy handmaid is in thy hands." He recognised 
no tie — he felt no obligation. What was Hagar, 



HAGAR — THE WIFE UXLOVED. 41 

that she should occasion strife between him and 
the wife of his youth, the partner of his life, 
the daughter of his own people ! 

Hagar was from this hour abandoned by 
Abraham to her mistress. When Sarah re- 
sumed the authority belonging to her station. 
she assumed with it a power never before ex- 
ercised. Forgetting all the love of past years. 
all the claims of the present horn- upon her 
kindness and forbearance, she treated the un- 
happy Hagar with such intolerable harshness, 
that the wretched woman fled from the face 
of her mistress and from the tents of her 
master, and sought refuge in the wilderness. 

We can conceive what bitter, despairing 
thoughts, what a keen sense of injustice and. 
injury may have pressed upon her, as she sat 
alone by the fountain in the desert. Proba- 
bly a little spot of green herbage denoted the 
presence of water, while, all around, lay the 



42 HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 

sandy, rocky desert. The stars, in the bright- 
ness of an oriental night, were looking down on 
her as she sat alone, her face buried in her 
hands, unheeded, there to die. Then came the 
visions of her youth, the remembrances of her 
childhood, the sound of her mother's voice, the 
dream of her smile — then the tent of Sarah — 
then the alliance with her master, the ex- 
citement of her pride, the flush of hope, the 
exultation of a fancied triumph over the child- 
less, but still honoured wife ; succeeded by the 
cold withdrawal of all the kindness of the patri- 
arch, and the entire abandonment of her whom 
he had taken to his bosom, to the implacable 
resentment of her former mistress ! 

The temper of Hagar, the feelings thus 
excited — dark, sullen, bitter, revengeful — when 
she fled from all, may have been impressed 
upon her offspring, and thus marked the future 
character of her race. 






HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 43 

Still, Hagar was not alone. The wanderer 
was not forgotten. In the hour of darkness 
and of desolation, there is One nigh even to 
those who forget him. "And the angel of the 
Lord found her by the fountain in the wilder- 
ness, and he said: Hagar, Sarah's maid, 
whence earnest thou? And whither wouldst 
thou go?" 

She was not addressed as the wife of Abra- 
ham. The conventional usage, so opposed 
to the positive institution, was not recognised 
and thus hallowed by Him who had established 
marriage ; and while Hagar was pitied, she 
was reminded of her real condition. "And 
she said, I flee from the face of my mistress, 
Sarah. And the angel of the Lord said unto 
her, Return unto thy mistress and submit thy- 
self under her hands. And the angel of the 
Lord said, Thou shalt have a son, and shalt 
call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has 



44 HAGAB. — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 

heard thy affliction. He shall be a wild man. 
His hand will be against every man, and every 
man's hand against him — and he shall dwell in 
the presence of all his brethren. And she 
called the name of the Lord that spake unto 
her, Thou God seest me, for she said, Have I 
also here looked after him that seeth me?" im- 
plying a recognition of the unexpected interfer- 
ence, protection and blessing of God. 

The promises of God are always preceded 
by his commands, and the faith which clings 
to the promises is to be tested by the obedi- 
ence which alone can make them availing. 
And when the words of the angel came to 
the desolate soul of the woman in the desert, 
there were admonition, reproof, and command 
mingled with promise and blessing. "Return 
to thy mistress." Return to thy duty, is the 
first requirement made of those God seeks out. 

And Hagar humbled herself and obeyed the 



HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 45 

voice of the Lord. She returned to her mis- 
tress. Trying as it must have been to one so 
aggrieved, she submitted to her authority, and 
again became a member of the household of 
Abraham. Had she disobeyed the angel, she 
and her child had doubtless perished in the 
wilderness ; but in yielding her proud and 
arrogant temper, she secured the future bless- 
ing to her race, and insured the safety of her 
child, while her submission and gentleness 
must have won back Sarah to a kinder temper, 
to a more forbearing treatment. 

After the birth of Ishmael, there intervened 
years — long years — in which Hagar tasted the 
bitterest cup ever presented to the lips of wo- 
man. A w^ife unloved, neglected — a mother dis- 
regarded — a woman held in bondage by one 
who had made her a rival — dwelling in the 
presence of him who had put her from him ! 
Her very presence brought reproach and 



46 HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 

sorrow to Sarah and Abraham — the viola- 
tion of the divine institution ever entailing its 
penalty. 

The wife deserted, neglected, whose hopes 
have been crushed, ever turns to her offspring | 
for comfort and sympathy ; and ardent was the 
love, strong were the ties, which bound the 
Egyptian mother to the son of the patriarch : 
and in Ishmael must all the hopes and affec- 
tions of Hagar have centred. Could she, 
indeed, have penetrated the future, could she 
have seen her race, the seed of her son, 
filling the desert and dwelling as princes ; 
while the seed of Sarah and of Abraham were 
held, as if in retribution of her own sufferings, 
in bondage in her own native land, — could she 
have passed through the intervening ages and 
seen the children of Ishmael issuing from their 
desert and setting their feet upon the necks of 
the proudest and mightiest, imposing their 



HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 4( 

faith upon a world, while they marched forth 
conquering and to conquer — could she have 
contrasted with the triumphant warriors of 
Arabia, the caliphs of the east and the west, 
?rith the wandering, desolate, persecuted, trod- 
len-down tribes of Israel — the proudest expecta- 
ions of the woman and the mother would have 
)een all answered. Could she have penetrated 
;he meaning of the words she must have so 
)ften pondered, she would have found that 
;he loftiest dreams of the rankest ambition 
vere to be more than realized. 

But dimly and faintly must she have appre- 
lended the meaning of the mysterious pro- 
phecy, even while she trusted the accompany- 
ng promise. As she saw Ishmael, the only 
mild in the tent of the patriarch, and loved 
)y the father, she perhaps allowed herself to 
lope that he was yet to be the heir, and 
:hat in his future honours she was to find 



48 HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 

a full recompense for all the trials of her 
blighted youth. 

After long years of waiting, Sarah embraced 
a son, and the event, so joyous to the parents, 
awoke afresh the bitter remembrances of 
Hagar, while it roused her to the conscious- 
ness of her present lot and of all the injuries 
inflicted upon her. 

In all the trials and sorrows through which 
she had passed, she had had none to sustain 
or sympathize with her. Her child remained 
her only earthly hope ; and now she felt that 
another was to supplant him, and thus disap- 
point all her expectations. 

Her spirit rose in pride and wrath, and she 
infused her own bitter feelings into the heart 
of her child. When Isaac was hailed as the 
heir, while all rejoiced, Hagar and Ishmael 
mocked both the infant .and the aged parents. 

Forbearance was no longer safe, and the 



HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 49 

decision of Sarah was wise, though harsh — yet 
it was sad to Abraham. Ishmael was still his 
son — his first-born. He had been ever dear to 
him ; and when the angel of the Lord had 
again confirmed that promise of a seed in 
whom all nations of the earth should be 
blessed, he had almost seemed to overlook it 
as he pleaded for the son of the bond-woman, 
" Oh that Ishmael might live before thee !" 

"While to Abraham was then confirmed the 
promise given before the birth of her child to 
Hagar, there was sorrow and perplexity in 
his heart. A message from heaven confirmed 
the decree of Sarah. 

The patriarch arose, after a night of conflict 
and prayer, while the stars were still shining 
in the heavens, while the flocks lay in stillness 
around the tents, and before those who had 
revelled and rejoiced were awake, and called 
Hagar and her child. Can -we not see them 



50 HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 

in the gray of the morning ? The father, the 
mother, the child, — the patriarch, aged, but not 
bowed by age, still retaining the vigour of man- 
hood — the boy shy, yet half-defying — the mo- 
ther ! In such an hour, all distinctions of rank 
and station would be forgotten, and all the feel- 
ings of the woman be roused. Then and 
there Hagar might well forget that she was 
Sarah's bondmaid, and only remember that 
she had been Abraham's wife — that she was 
still Ishmael's mother. 

In that hour must have risen the memory 
of her wrongs, of her saddened youth, her 
darkened womanhood — of the selfishness with 
which he had wedded her; of the heartlessness 
with which he had deserted her ; of her long years 
of trial and contempt. And her eye might 
speak reproach, although the lips were closed 
and there was no voice. Should we not re- 
joice to believe that the patriarch whispered 



HAGAE, — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 51 

some regret for the past, and spoke of sorrow 
and repentance to her whose happiness he had 
so selfishly sacrificed, even as he consummated 
his work by casting her out, a homeless exile. 
Such is the enslaving power of custom, so 
easily do we blind ourselves to our own delin- 
quencies, that Abraham probably aggravated 
Hagar's faults while he overlooked her injuries. 
He saw in her but the despiteful, revengeful 
handmaid ; he forgot that she was an injured 
wife — a neglected mother. 

Yet no words of reproach, of entreaty, or 
explanation of the past, or promise for the 
future, are recorded as having passed between 
them. He pronounced the decree, and laid 
upon the bond-maid, and not upon his noble 
boy, the provision for the journey. She turned 
from the tents, and thus they parted ! 

But the connection of Abraham and Ha- 
gar had woven a thread into the destiny of 



52 HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVE©. 

nations, still to be traced. She left the pa- 
triarch in sorrow, in bitterness of soul; but 
she went out to found nations, to punish rulers, 
to establish a long line who should transmit 
the name of her son and the influence of her 
character to remotest ages — even to the end 
of time. 

Accustomed to the wandering life of the 
desert, and provided for the journey, Abraham 
probably deemed Hagar competent to guide 
her steps to a place of safety. But sorrow 
may have blinded her eyes, or despair made 
her reckless, and she was lost in the desert. 
The water was spent in the bottle — tons of 
gold could not open a fountain in the desert — 
and she saw her child parched with thirst, 
" faint and ready to die ; and she cast him 
under one of the shrubs, and went and sat a 
good way off, as it were a bow-shot, for she 
said, Let me not see the death of the child ; 



HAGAR — THE WIFE UXLOVED. 53 

and as she sat over against him, she lifted up 
her voice and wept. And God heard the 
voice of the lad, and the angel of God called 
to her out of heaven, and said unto her, What 
aileth thee Hagar ? Fear not ! For God hath 
heard the voice of the child where he is. Arise, 
lift up the lad, and hold him in thy hand, for 
I will make of him a great nation. And God 
opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, 
and she went and filled the bottle with water, 
and gave the lad to drink." What an inimitable 
description of a mother's love ! What a display 
of the watchful benevolence of Jehovah ! 

In this hour of desolation, when no human 
aid was near, there was again the Divine inter- 
position, while there was no reproach, no 
allusion even to that sinful temper which had 
led to the banishment of both mother and 
child, and caused them to come here to 
perish in the wilderness. Blessed be God 



54 HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 

that he does not suffer the unworthiness of 
his children to separate them from his love ; 
that in the hour of extremity he is still nigh ; 
that his ear is ever open to hear and his arm 
ready to save. 

" And God was with the lad : and he grew 
and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an 
archer; and he dwelt in the wilderness of 
Par an." And his mother still dwelt with 
him; and in all his wanderings, wherever his 
footsteps were turned, there was her home. 
There is a touching remembrance of her early 
life, in the fact that Hagar chose a wife for 
her son from among the daughters of her own 
people : " She took him a wife out of the land 
of Egypt." And from this union have sprung 
the tribes who still fill the deserts where Hagar 
sought a refuge. A wild race, dwelling in 
the presence of all their brethren, whose hand 



HAGAR — THE WIFE * UNLOVED. 55 

is against every man, while every man's hand 
is against them. 

Ishmael rose rapidly to rank, and Hagar 
lived to rejoice in his prosperity. The life 
which commenced in want, privation and 
wandering in the wilderness, conducted her to 
wealth and honour. So dark and inscrutable 
are the ways of Providence, that at each step 
we are taught but to seek the path of duty 
and obey the direction of Heaven. 

The children of Ishmael seem to have long 
preserved the knowledge of Jehovah. Hagar, 
who had received so many proofs of the being, 
power, and providence of the God of Abraham, 
might well instruct her descendants in the prin- 
ciples of the true faith. The race of Ishmael 
have still preserved the site which Abraham 
received as the seal of faith. Often may 
Hagar have recounted the providences of 
God — the account she had heard, in the tent 



56 HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 

of Abraham, of the creation, the fall, the deluge, 
the re-peopling of the world ; and often, in the 
course of "their wandering lives, she may have 
led her descendants to those deep waters which 
covered the guilty cities of the plain, and then 
described them as she knew them before the 
wrath of God fell upon them. 

The tribes of Ishmael have ever recognised 
their descent from Abraham ; and the instruc- 
tions of Hagar are preserved as national tradi- 
tions to this very day, though exaggerated by 
Eastern fancy, and mingled with wilder ro- 
mance, as they have been transmitted from one 
generation to another by the children of Ish- 
mael, who still lead their flocks in the same 
valleys, and pitch their tents by the same foun- 
tains to which Hagar resorted with Ishmael. 

Hagar and Ishmael were no more members 
of Abraham's household, yet the relationship 
of father and son was ever recognised. Doubt- 



HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 57 

less Abraham imparted of his wealth to his first- 
born ; and as Abraham often sojourned after- 
wards in Beer-sheba, probably not far from 
the spot where Hagar and Ishmael so nearly 
perished, the father and son may have often met ; 
and Isaac and Ishmael may have held kindly 
intercourse, when the bitter feelings of rivalry 
and of conscious wrong had subsided. The ties 
of kindred were still allowed, and Esau sought 
a wife from the family of his own kindred, as a 
means of conciliating his father and mother; 
thus showing that a purer morality and a 
higher religious feeling were cherished than 
those among surrounding tribes. And when 
Abraham died, having attained a full age, his 
sons, Isaac and Ishmael, both far advanced in 
years, buried him. The strifes, the bitterness, 
the hate of early life seem to have been for- 
gotten, and they united in the last offices of 
filial love and duty. 



58 HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 

The son of the bondmaid had attained, 
during the life of Abraham, a distinction beyond 
that of the son of the wife ; and his immedi- 
ate descendant rose to wealth and honour, 
while, if one branch of Isaac's family tasted 
prosperity, those recognised as the heirs of 
that mysterious blessing were long known 
as wanderers, and then despised as slaves. 
Their long line of descent has run parallel, 
side by side, distinct, unmingled ; recognising 
a common origin, but never acknowledging a 
common brotherhood. The oldest nations 
of the earth, — the one exiled from the land given 
them, dwelling as outcasts and strangers among 
all the nations of the earth, yet still separate, 
apart, a peculiar people ; the other living at 
this day in the deserts where Ilagar wandered, 
and where she fainted — a never-conquered 
people. And while Assyrian, Greek, and 
Roman have swept the world and exacted 



HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 59 

tribute of the nations around them, and other 
tribes have been swept with the besom of de- 
struction, the sons of Ishmael have still dwelt 
in the presence of their brethren, ever en- 
forcing, but still refusing to pay tribute — free 
and wild as the lad who first became an archer in 
the wilderness. Unconsciously confirming pro- 
phecy, and still attesting the truth of a revela- 
tion which they contemn and deny, — thus 
strangely dwelling so different from all other 
nations, — preserving the initiatory rites and 
the mystic symbols of the faith of Abraham, 
the customs and traditions of the age of the 
patriarch, — these nations dwell distinct, sepa- 
rate from each other and from all other nations, 
awaiting the day when blindness shall be re- 
moved from the eyes of the children of promise, 
and the descendants of Sarah and of Hagar 
shall be both gathered with the fold of Christ. 
There are Hagars of modern, as well as of 



60 HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 

ancient days, — of western as of eastern lands. 
She who is wedded from interest and conveni- 
ence ; she who forms a heartless union from 
pride and ambition ; she who awakes from her 
dreams of bliss to find herself an unloved, and 
perhaps to become a deserted wife — all these 
prove the bitterness of the lot of the Egyptian 
Hagar. He who has ordained marriage has 
graciously implanted the affections which are to 
make it a source of happiness; and those who 
form this union under other motives and in- 
fluences run fearful risks. There are many 
Hagars in the highest ranks of life, and even 
where the artificial distinctions of society are 
most highly regarded and carefully recognised. 
When youth is wedded to age or sacrificed 
to decrepitude to promote some State policy, 
though the victims are not clothed in the garb 
of the Egyptian slave, but arrayed in the 
pomp of regal vestments, yet the diamond 



HAGAR — THE WIFE UNLOVED. 61 

)ften rests upon an aching brow, and the 
Dearls press a saddened bosom ; and when the 
loliest of earthty institutions is thus violated, 
?ach relation of life is profaned ; and polluted 
streams descend from the highest sources and 
liiFuse their poison through all the ranks of 
life — through all the gradations of society. 

There will still be Hagars — women who 
marry for a home, or a support ; and especially 
svhile woman is educated to be helpless — unable 
bo provide for her own wants ; or while that pre- 
judice is cherished which leads her to deem 
useful employment a degradation. 

HAGAR'S EXILE. 

She fled, with one reproachful look 

On him who bade her go, 
And scarcely could the patriarch brook 

That glance of voiceless wo : 
In vain her quivering lips essay'd 

His mercy to implore ; 
Silent the mandate she obey'd, 

And then was seen no more. 



62 HAGAR — TIIE WIFE UNLOVED. 

The burning waste and lonely wild 

Received her as she went ; 
Hopeless, she clasp'd her fainting child, 

With thirst and sorrow spent. 
And in the wilderness so drear, 

She raised her voice on high, 
And sent forth that heart-stricken prayer, 

" Let me not see him die !" 

Her beautiful, her only boy, 

Her all of hope below ; 
So long his father's pride and joy, 

And yet — from him the blow! 
Alone she must his head sustain, 

And watch his sinking breath, 
And on his bright brow mark the stain 

Of the destroyer, Death. 

" Let me not see him die," and lo ! 

The messenger of peace ! 
Once more her tears forget to flow, 

Once more her sorrows cease. 
Life, strength, and freedom now are given 

With mighty power to one 
Who from his father's roof was driven, 

And he — the outcast's son. 

How often we, like Hagar, mourn, 

When some unlook'd for blight 
Drives us away, no more to turn 

To joys we fancied bright! 
Forced from our idols to retreat, 

And seek the Almighty's care, 
Perchance we are sent forth to meet 

A desert-angel there. 



THE PAKTIAL AND INTKIGUING 
MOTHER— KEBEKAH. 




FTER the departure of 

*§| Hagar and her son 

; K from the tents of Abra- 

nam, peace seems to 



have returned, and it 
became the abode of 
filial and parental as 
well as of conjugal affection. Sarah's days 
were still prolonged, that she might exercise 
the duties and enjoy the pleasures of a mother. 
The heir of wealth, and the child of love and 
indulgence, the character of Isaac seems to have 



64 THE PARTIAL AND 

been the reverse of his brother, the restless, 
wandering Ishmael. The one, cast off from the 
care of the father and taught to rely upon his 
own energies, early distinguished himself, and 
became the leader of a band, and a prince among 
the nations around ; while the other, cherished 
and cared for, was content to dwell in the peace- 
ful enjoyment of wealth and prosperity. Thus 
do we find that trials are necessary to develope 
the higher qualities and to call them into ac- 
tion. The truly great and noble, the eminent 
in talent or usefulness, are never nursed in the 
bosom of ease. 

Sarah died ; and while the bereaved husband 
felt his loss, the son could not have been insen- 
sible. There was a dreary void in the home of 
the patriarch when the wife and the mother 
had been laid in the sepulchre. There was no 
one to fill the place of Sarah — no one to bless 
their simple, meals. She no longer appears to 



INTRIGUING MOTHER — REBEKAH. 65 

welcome them as they returned from the field 
or the flock. The tribe is without a mother, 
the household without a mistress. Many con- 
siderations led Abraham to desire the marriage 
of his son, and he cast around his thoughts 
for a wife worthy of being the mother of the 
promised seed, and one who could well fulfil 
the duties which must devolve upon her as the 
head of his large household. The people 
around him would have courted his alliance, 
and as yet no command from God forbade his 
forming family ties with the inhabitants of the 
land. But Abraham too well knew the influ- 
ence of the wife and the mother, to choose a 
wife for the child of promise from a race apos- 
tate from the religion of Jehovah. He knew 
the ensnaring influence which would there be 
brought to bear upon his family, and he resolved 
to seek a wife for Isaac among his far-distant 
kindred — those who yet retained the knowledge 



QQ THE PARTIAL AND 

and clung to the worship of the God of Shem, 
of Noah, and of Adam. Though far separated 
from his brethren, yet communications seem to 
have passed, and Abraham had been told of the 
enlargement of the family of his brother; and 
he resolved, not only to seek a wife for his son 
from among his own kindred, but, while making 
arrangements for such a marriage, he solemnly 
guarded against the return of his descendants 
to the land from whence he had been called. 

Trying as might be the long journey, and 
uncertain as seemed the issue, no inferior mo- 
tives were allowed to be put in competition with 
the perpetuity of the worship and knowledge 
of God. A connection with any of the families 
of the Canaanites would have been at once en- 
snaring to the household of Abraham and inju- 
rious in its influence upon the heart of Isaac. 
Had Isaac married the daughter of an idolater, 
irreligion and immorality would soon have per- 



INTRIGUING MOTHER — REBEKAH. 67 

vaded the family of the patriarch, and the 
knowledge of the true God have departed from 
the earth. Thus the beacon light of nations, had 
been extinguished, and the last altar erected to 
Jehovah had been broken down : for the other 
descendants of Shem were fast departing from 
the God of their fathers, — and if the children 
of Keturah and Ishmael for a period retained 
the faith of Abraham, the torch which kindled 
the fire on their altars was lighted at that which 
was kept burning on those of Isaac and Jacob, 
and the example of then . families preserved 
alive the remembrance and the acts of the liv- 
ing God in the nations around them. 

With a train which became the suitor of a 
prince, with costly presents of gold and orna- 
ments according to the custom of both ancient 
and modern days, but more particularly con- 
forming to Eastern usage, the confidential ser- 
vant of Abraham was sent on his embassy to 



68 THE PARTIAL AND 

the kindred of his master, there to receive a 
bride for the son of the patriarch. We gain a 
delightful impression both of the piety and in- 
telligence of the household of Abraham from 
the account of the messenger to whom this im- 
portant transaction was intrusted. The faith 
of the patriarch animated the other members 
of his household, and a strong chain of love 
encircled all. After a long journey, the train 
reached the plains of Mesopotamia, and then 
the tents of Nahor appeared in new ; and then, 
in the prospect of the immediate discharge of 
his commission, the messenger of the patriarch 
sought explicit direction from the God of Abra- 
ham. 

While the description of the interview at the 
fountain, "without the gate of the city," gives 
a most beautiful view of the manners of the 
age and the people, and an unsurpassed picture 
of the freshness and simplicity of pastoral life, 



INTRIGUING .MOTHER — REBEKAH. b\) 

it proves at once the piety and the clear dis- 
crimination of the agent employed. The beau- 
ty of the youthful Rebekah caught his eye, 
while the test he devised afforded a safe crite- 
rion of the character of the woman. "Weary 
with the labours of the sultry day, after tend- 
ing her own flocks, had she been indolent or 
inactive, selfish or sullen, she had turned from 
his request, and suffered his attendants to ad- 
minister to his wants. But as she looked upon 
them — dusty, weary, parched by thirst, worn 
down by long travel — the sympathies of a kind 
nature* were awakened, as the servant ran to 
meet her, saying, " Let me, I pray thee, drink 
a little water from thy pitcher." She said, 
" Drink, my lord," and she let down the pitcher 
upon her hand and gave him to drink ; and when 
he had done drinking, she said, " I will draw 
water for thy camels also, until they have done 
drinking." Thus did the maiden clearly prove 



70 THE PARTIAL AND 

that she possessed some of the qualities most 
necessary for a wife — that ready self-forget- 
fulness, that kindness, cheerfulness, and desire 
to promote the happiness of others, that sun- 
shine of the heart which sheds its brightening 
beams over all the clouds that darken domestic 
life. Through all the ages of the world, in all 
the circumstances in which mankind are placed, 
the wife has ever need of them, and wisely may 
the suitor look for them. But the servant of the 
patriarch, "still wondering, held his peace." 
Not until assured that she was of the race of 
the true worshippers of the God of Abraham, 
that she had been trained in the fear of the 
Lord, did he feel assured that the fair and kind 
Syrian damsel was to be chosen for the wife of 
his master's son. He had felt that the prayer 
was answered. He had taken out the rich 
gifts intended for her, but he seems to hesitate 
as he says, " Whose daughter art thou ! Tell 



INTRIGUING MOTHER — REBEKAH. 71 

Die, I pray thee, is there room in thy father's 
house for us to lodge in?" And she answered, 
" I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of 
Milcah, whom she bore unto Nahor." 

" And the man bowed down and worshipped 
the Lord, and he said, Blessed be the Lord 
God of my master Abraham, who hath not left 
destitute my master of his mercy ancl his truth. 
I being in the way, the Lord hath led me to 
the house of my master's brethren." 

The negotiation between the servant of 
Abraham and the father and brothers of Re- 
bekah was soon concluded. They deferred not 
the answer to be given, when the messenger 
had laid before them his errand, and told them 
of the wealth and honour of his master ; and 
the whole transaction impresses us with an 
idea of the piety and kindness of the family 
of Bethuel. 

The thing is from the Lord — while the rich 



72 THE PARTIAL AND 

gifts, made to all the members of the family, 
proved the truth of the statements of the mes- 
senger, and perhaps enforced his plea. Yet, 
when he urged the immediate departure of the 
bride for the tent of her husband, the hearts of 
the mother and of the brothers yet clung to the 
youthful maiden. They shrank from a separa- 
tion so sudden, so complete — and they said, 
Let the damsel stay with us a few days — at 
least ten. Oh, do not snatch her away from 
us so suddenly. But after that, she shall go. 

And he said, " Hinder me not. Seeing that 
the Lord hath prospered me, send me away 
that I may go to my master." And they said, 
" We will call the maiden, and inquire at her 
mouth." And they called Rebekah, and said 
unto her, " Wilt thou go with this man ?" And 
she said, " I will go." 

Are we not, even at this period, taught lessons 
of parental wisdom, in the care displayed by the 



INTRIGUING MOTHER — REBEKAH. 73 

ancient patriarch respecting the choice of a wife 
for his son ? In the care taken to secure an un- 
stained parentage in one who had been early 
trained in the habits of piety and godly princi- 
ples of action ? The character of the family is 
is often stamped upon each member, and the 
marked features are transmitted from generation 
to generation, even where the character of the 
woman may be modified by her new relations. 
As she advances in years she often returns to 
the habits of her youth, while she almost inva- 
riably adopts the practice of her own mother in 
the early nurture and training of her children. 
He who would have reformed France was 
taught that he must begin his work by training 
mothers. And thus the ancient patriarch fore- 
saw that the great nation that was to descend 
from him, like to the stars of heaven for multi- 
tude, would long bear the impress of the cha- 
racter of the mother who rocked it in the first 



74 THE PARTIAL AND 

cradle of its existence, and his wisdom was 
manifested in the pains which he took to secure 
a good lineage and right habits and principles. 
The foresight of the father could go no farther. 
Time must test the individual character. 

After they left the tents of Bethuel, the 
train, now augmented by the presence of the 
bride and her immediate attendants, her nurse 
and handmaids, slowly wended its way back 
to the tents of the patriarch, pursuing the na- 
tural highways of the country, — now by the 
stream, then across the plain, then through the 
desert, sandy, barren, trackless ; then winding 
through the mountain pass, encamping during 
the heat of the day by the fountain and under 
the shade, and pursuing their journey in the 
cool of the evening and of the morning. 

Love or devotion, or the mingling of both, 
led Isaac out into the fields at eventide to medi- 
tate, and his feet turned towards the route by 






INTRIGUING MOTHER — REBEKAH. 75 

which his messengers might be expected, and 
the eye of his servant descried him afar off, and 
he pointed him out to the stranger. And while 
the messenger seems to have hasted to meet his 
master and give an account of his mission, Re- 
bekah descended from her lofty seat and covered 
herself with a veil. 

Henry the Fourth, of France, met his bride 
soon after she entered his kingdom, and mingled 
with her attendants, that he might watch her 
unobserved ; and when his presence was an- 
nounced she kneeled, and he gracefully raised 
her up. Napoleon entered the carriage of his 
Austrian bride, and announced himself, while 
she gazed with wondering eyes upon one, long 
only known as the enemy of her father's house 
and the terror of his kingdom. The meeting 
of the heir of the patriarch and his youthful 
bride is quite as interesting a scene as any of 
those recorded of more modern days. 



76 THE PARTIAL AND 

And Isaac 'went out to meditate in the fields 
at eventide, and he lifted up his eyes, and, be- 
hold ! the camels were coming. And Rebekah 
lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she 
lighted off the camel. For she had said unto the 
servant, " What man is this that walketh in the 
field to meet us ?" And the servant said, " It 
is my master;" therefore she took a veil and 
covered herself. And the servant told Isaac 
all things that he had done. And Isaac brought 
her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Re- 
bekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. 

Rebekah seems to have made an affectionate, 
happy wife. Many years passed before children 
were born to Isaac ; and when the twin boys, 
Esau and Jacob, were in childhood, there was 
evidently a marked difference in their charac- 
ters. Esau was active, restless, and enterpris- 
ing. He grew up a hunter, — daring and bold, 
— loving a life of change and adventure; while 



INTRIGUING MOTHER — REBEKAH. 77 

Jacob was a "plain man, dwelling in tents." 
Blindness was stealing over Isaac and unfitting 
him for the cares which rested upon him, for 
the supervision of his numerous servants and 
his many flocks and herds. During the fre- 
quent absences of Esau upon his hunting ex- 
peditions, these cares must have devolved upon 
Rebekah and Jacob. Her heart clung to the 
child who was ever with her in sympathy; 
while the tales of peril and adventure with 
which Esau enlivened the wearisome days of 
his father, were as acceptable to blindness and 
loneliness, as were the presents of the game 
he so frequently brought. "And Isaac loved 
Esau." Thus the injudicious fondness of the 
parents sowed the seeds of bitterness and alien- 
ation between the two brothers, and led to their 
mutual estrangement. The birthright, which 
implied the inheriting of the blessing promised 
to the seed of Abraham, was despised by Esau, 

7* 



78 THE PARTIAL AND 

who, doubtless, in his prolonged wanderings 
from home, and his frequent associations with 
the inhabitants of the land, had been led to 
feel contempt for the worship and the promises 
of God, and in his reckless levity he transferred 
it to Jacob for " a mess of pottage" while he 
further alienated himself from his parents and 
brother by marrying the daughter of a Hittite. 
" This was a grief and sorrow of mind to Isaac 
and Rebekah." Forgetting the respect due to 
them as his parents ; forgetting his own position 
as the eldest son of the heir of the promise ; 
heedless of the example of filial deference 
shown by Isaac, and of all the care that pre- 
served the family free from the corruption 
around them, he formed an union with those 
who were strangers to the faith of Abraham 
and of a race apostate from the worship of Jeho- 
vah. Yet, while mourning the perverseness of 
his favourite child, the father, aged and blind, 



INTRIGUING MOTHER — REBEKAH. 79 

did not propose to withdraw his favour from 
him ; and, feeling that his infirmities increased, 
Isaac bade Esau with his own hands prepare 
him a favourite dish, that he might eat and 
bless him before his death. Did we better un- 
derstand the customs of that age, we might find 
that Isaac was not merely influenced by bodily 
appetite, but that there might be a peculiar 
significance in the act. 

We do not love to dwell upon Rebekah's de- 
ceit and the lessons of falsehood she taught her 
son — and the prophecy uttered before the birth 
of the children, neither justifies nor extenuates 
her guilt ; for God has never taught his people, 
that to promote his plans they are to violate 
his laws. 

Alienated from her elder son, we see Re- 
bekah, by intrigue and treachery, seeking to 
advance the interests of the younger at the 



80 THE PARTIAL AND 

expense of the rights of his brother. As we 
read the sacred narrative, every sympathy is 
awakened in favour of the injured Esau, and 
we hear, with burning indignation against the 
author of his wrong, his pathetic cry, " Hast 
thou no blessing for me ! Bless me, even me, 
my father !" But the artifice of the mother 
and wife was successful. She secured all she 
sought — and her success brought its own punish- 
ment. Dark clouds of hate settled over the 
household, and Esau waited only for the death 
of his father that he might destroy the life of 
his brother ; and to save the life of her son, the 
mother was forced to send him into banish- 
ment. Again the intriguing, managing cha- 
racter of the mother appears. She assigned 
what might be a reason, but not the true reason, 
to Isaac. " I am weary of my life, because of 
the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife 



INTRIGUING MOTHER — REBEKAH. 81 

of the daughters of Heth, such as these which 
are of the daughters of the land, what good 
shall my life do me ?" The plea of the mother 
prevailed, and Isaac blessed Jacob, and he left 
the land of his father, ostensibly to seek a wife, 
but in truth to flee from the vengeance of his 
brother. 

The son of the wealthy patriarch went not 
out like an Eastern suitor — not with a train 
such as Abraham sent when he wooed Eebekah 
for his son. To avoid the hate of Esau, he 
stole like a fugitive from the tents of Isaac ; 
and, a foot-worn pilgrim, unattended, he sought 
the kindred of his mother. And here the 
mother and her favourite child parted. She 
had alienated his brother to promote his in- 
terests. She had sacrificed her integrity to 
secure his fortune, and her plan had succeeded. 
She had secured the object at which she had 
aimed, and yet in the result she had been forced 



82 THE PARTIAL AND 

to send forth her darling child — a homeless 
wanderer. 

There is no reason to believe that the mother 
and the son ever met again. From this time 
she disappears. Surrounded by the alienated 
Esau's hated wives and ill-loved children, 
separated from the child of her affection, she 
may have sunk into a premature grave, or she 
may have lived many sorrowful years to feel 
the miseries she had drawn upon herself by her 
violations of the rules of rectitude, and an 
eager desire to promote the happiness of one 
child at the sacrifice of that of another. 

There are still too many families involved in 
all the bitterness of domestic strife from the 
unjust partiality of one or both of the parents 
for favoured children. If, as children advance 
in life and their characters are formed, a 
calmer feeling succeeds the trembling tender- 
ness which guarded their infant days, and our 



INTRIGUING MOTHER — REBEKAH. 83 

love to them (as to all other mortal beings) re- 
sults from an appreciation of their characters, 
so that one may awaken a purer regard than 
another, this feeling is very different from that 
partial fondness which adopts one and gives 
him a place in our affection to the exclusion of 
another. That instinctive justice which com- 
pels a higher regard for the purer moral worth, 
will, of itself, prevent that parental partiality 
which leads to injustice or to an infringement 
of established rights and recognised principles. 
An unjust parent presents one of the most 
revolting pictures of human nature. The 
character involves a disregard of the most 
sacred ties and the tenderest relations. And 
whoever exhibits parental injustice, or that 
partial fondness which leads to injustice, at 
once destroys the affections and violates the 
moral sense. Families trained under such 
influences, still exhibit revolting scenes of 



84 THE PARTIAL AND 

human depravity — of bitterness, strife, aliena- 
tion and revenge. Who can tell how much of 
the estrangement of Esau, and this early intro- 
duction of the worship of strange gods among 
his descendants, may have been induced by the 
conscious alienation of his mother, and the un- 
just preference of the interests of his brother ? 
Had Rebekah, with a mother's love, striven to 
win her eldest son back to his father's tent and 
the altar of his God — had she still respected 
his rights and preserved his regard by unde- 
viating truth and faithfulness, she would have 
retained a strong hold upon him, and her influ- 
ence might have been long felt by her descend- 
ants, in restraining them from the sins of those 
around them. 

We cannot yet part with the two principal 
actors in these sad scenes of treachery and de- 
ceit. We think of Rebekah, the companion of 
her blind husband — deprived of the son who had 



INTRIGUING MOTHER — REBBKAH. 85 

shared and alleviated her cares, and conscious 
of having awakened that bitter hate which 
would seek the blood of a brother — still follow- 
ing in her thoughts the footsteps of the wan- 
dering Jacob, feeling that by her own intrigues 
she had banished him from his home and her 
presence. 

And we may follow Jacob, as he stole from 
the tents of Isaac, a wanderer like the first 
fugitive, with his brother's curse upon him. 
Until this hour all Jacob's views and feelings 
seem earthly and grovelling. Until now, there 
has been no indication of that trust and piety 
which afterwards marked his life. He had 
seemed worldly, cunning, ready to snatch any 
personal advantage. From this period he 
seems to awaken to a higher — a spiritual life. 
He seems to have comprehended the deeper 
meaning of promise and prophecy. We cannot 
tell what remorseful and despairing thoughts 



86 THE PARTIAL AND 

filled his soul as lie left his home — how strange 
and inexplicable may have seemed all the ways 
of God toward him. Yet he must have felt 
that, in punishment of his deceit and falsehood, 
he was thus sent forth with but his scrip and 
staff, while he left Esau to inherit the posses- 
sions of his father. 

He had wandered until he was faint and 
weary, and then he had lain himself down on 
the earth, with stones for his pillow and the 
heavens for the curtains of his tent. In 
the silence of the night his soul was opened to 
spiritual revealings — to those influences from 
heaven which marked the change in his future 
life. He saw the angels of God ascending and 
descending upon him. Often before this may 
they have visited him — constantly may they 
have hovered over him — but now he was made 
conscious of the presence, watch and interposi- 
tion of the heavenly intelligences of the higher 



INTRIGUING MOTHER — REBEKAH. 87 

presence of the God of Abraham. From this 
hour we trace a different influence pervading 
the heart and life of Jacob. He was awakened 
to higher motives — and from this hour he en- 
tered into covenant with God, and took Him to 
be his God. 

And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and 
said, " Surely the Lord is in this place, and I 
knew it not;" and he was afraid, and said, 
" How dreadful is this place ! This is none other 
than the house of God — and this is the gate of 
heaven." And Jacob rose up early in the morn- 
ing, and took the stone that he had put for his 
pillow, and set it for a pillar, and poured oil upon 
the top of it. "And he called the name of that 
place Bethel." And Jacob vowed a vow, saying 
" If God will be with me, and will keep me in the 
way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and 
raiment to put on, so that I come again to my 
father's house in peace, then shall the Lord 



50 THE PARTIAL MOTHER — REBEKAH. 

be my God, and this stone, which I have set 
for a pillar, shall be God's house, and of all 
that thou shalt give me I will surely give the 
tenth unto thee." 

The future life of Jacob was not free from 
the infirmity of human purpose — the imperfec- 
tion of human nature. Yet from this time he 
walked with God, and all his deportment was 
marked by deep and humble piety. "We doubt 
not that at this period he passed through that 
transforming change by which, in every age, and 
under every dispensation, the human soul has 
been enabled to enter into the mysteries of the 
spiritual life and enjoy communion vvitli the 
Author of its existence, through that Spirit 
which breathed the first breath of life by which 
man became a living soul. 



THE RIVAL SISTERS-LEAH 
AND RACHEL. 




I HERE are two cha- 
racters, which by some 
associations of me- 
mory, or caprice of 
fancy, are ever blend- 
ed in our recollections 
— the one of ancient, the other of modern days 
— the one of sacred, the other of profane his- 
tory. Catharine of Arragon, the unloved con- 
sort of the King of England, and Sarah, the 

daughter of the Syrian shepherd, the hated 
8* 89 



90 THE RIVAL SISTERS I 

wife of the Hebrew patriarch. There may 
seem to be as little assimilation of character 
and destiny, as there is of condition, between 
the daughter and the wife of a Syrian shep- 
herd, and the daughter of one of the proudest 
monarchs of Spain and the wife of the haughti- 
est king of England; but they were both 
women, and both wives of those who loved 
them not; and this fact, whatever the con- 
dition of woman, stamps her lot as one of 
wretchedness. The wife neglected and des- 
pised is a woman sorrowful, whether she 
be the inmate of a tent or the dweller in 
a palace — whether she tend the flock or 
grace the throne. 

Catharine of Arragon, the daughter of 
Isabella and Ferdinand, seems a truth-loving, 
devout woman, well prepared to welcome the 
great principles advanced by the Reformers, 
had she not been placed in circumstances 



LEAH AND RACHEL. 91 

most adverse to their influence. Had Henry 
embraced the doctrines and the principles of 
the Reformation from a conviction of their 
truth and importance — had he sought to 
regulate his own life by the pure precepts 
of the Bible, and thus striven to disseminate 
a pure faith among his people — had the con- 
scientious Catharine been the patroness and 
the friend of the Reformers, instead of the 
trifling, if not guilty, Anne Boleyn — the En- 
glish church and the state of religion in the 
English nation would doubtless have presented 
a different history for the past, and a different 
aspect for the future. 

But these are vain speculations. Catharine 
lived and died in the Papal faith. From the 
circumstances in which she was placed, she 
clung to it as to her womanly honour, her 
queenly dignity — as she would preserve her 
name from blight, her child from shame. And 



92 THE RIVAL SISTERS: 

when she saw herself supplanted, when she 
was disgraced, divorced, her child declared ille- 
gitimate, and she knew her death was desired 
by one to whom she had been a devoted, 
faithful wife, what words could be more touch- 
ing than those the dramatist gives as her last 
message to the king ! " Tell him, his long 
sorrow has passed away." Oh, none but a 
wife dying thus, with the bitter consciousness 
that her life was undesired and that her death 
would be unregretted, can feel their full import. 
The bells which had tolled for Catharine 
of Arragon had hardly ceased to vibrate 
when the roar of the cannon announced the 
execution of Anne. The one died in January, 
the other was beheaded in May ; and she who, 
by exciting and encouraging the unholy love of 
the king, had unchained his fierce passions 
and taught him to break through all restraints, 
was herself, full early, their victim. 



LEAH AND RACHEL. 93 

Shall we pass from the palaces of England 
to the tents of Mesopotamia — from the last 
days of chivalry to those of the ancient patri- 
archs and shepherds of the earliest of recorded 
ages ? 

When the wandering Jacob reached the 
abode of his mother's kindred, the land of 
Haran, he met, at the same fountain at which 
Rebekah had watered the flocks of the messen- 
ger of Abraham, the daughter of her brother 
Laban. He had seated himself by the well, 
and when the maiden came, he aided her to 
water her flocks ; and he was thus introduced 
to his kinsmen by Rachel ; and he told them that 
he was the son of Rebekah, of whom, perhaps, 
they had long lost the recollection ; and with 
all the hospitality of the East — that hospitality 
which ever prevails among a simple and pas- 
toral people — he was welcomed by the kindred 
of the mother. 



94 THE RIVAL SISTERS: 

The brother of Rebekah had two daughters. 
Leah, the elder, was tender-eyed, but Rachel 
was beautiful; and both sisters loved their 
cousin, while the heart of Jacob clung to the 
younger, the fair damsel who first welcomed 
him ; so that he overlooked the claims of the 
elder, — the plain, if not disfigured, Leah. He 
brought no offerings with him to conciliate the 
favour of the father, and, according to the cus- 
tom of the East, to facilitate his marriage. But 
he offered his personal service as an equivalent. 
And the son of Isaac served seven years for 
the daughter of Laban. But this long period 
was passed ; and dwelling, as Jacob did, in the 
presence of Rachel, a member of the household 
of her father, they seemed but as a few days, 
for the love he bore her. 

But the time had now arrived when the mar- 
riage should be celebrated, and Jacob claimed 
his bride. But he who had wronged his bro- 



LEAH AND RACHEL. 95 

ther, who had by disguise deceived his father, 
was now imposed upon by guile and treachery ; 
and all the hopes and expectations of these 
long years were defeated. The customs of 
Eastern marriages favoured the deceit, and 
Jacob found that he was wedded to Leah, and 
not to the object of his affection. The deceit 
was most unjustifiable. The disappointment 
and the resentment must have been propor- 
tionably great ; and miserable was the excuse 
of Laban, and wretched the device which was 
offered as an atonement. Yet Jacob must have 
bowed before the retributions of an avenging 
God, and the remembrance of his own treach- 
ery may have stayed his anger. 

Thus commenced the family of Jacob, with 
all the elements of dissension, strife and bitter- 
ness incorporated into its very earliest exist- 
ence. The daughters of Laban both became 
the wives of Jacob, and they were rivals as 



96 THE RIVAL SISTERS I 

women, as sisters, as wives and as mothers — 
forced to dwell together, yet ever in sullen 
hatred or bitter strife. When the ties of 
natural affection are severed, the heart never 
ceases to bleed ; and there is no hatred so deep, 
so implacable as that which springs up where 
hearts once knit are thus alienated and forced 
asunder: and the sorrows and evils which 
sprang up in the family of Jacob may have 
led to that command so explicitly given by 
Moses — "Neither shalt thou take a wife to 
her sister to vex her, in her lifetime." 

The heart of Jacob never departed from 
Rachel. She was the chosen bride. He loved 
her with a deep and true affection, while the 
forced claims of Leah awoke only the remem- 
brance of the deceit. In the emphatic lan- 
guage of the Bible, " he loved Rachel, but he 
hated Leah," and it was in accordance with 
the constant exhibitions of human nature that 



LEAH AND RACHEL. 97 

it should be thus. He had never sought her 
love. No love, no devotedness, could efface 
the remembrance of her connivance at that 
deep-laid plot which had imposed her upon 
him as a wife. Yet the lot of Leah was pecu- 
liarly a lot of reproach and trial — and as we 
behold her wretchedness, we are led, not to 
extenuate her fault, nor to palliate her sin, 
but to forgive and pity her sorrows. 

In early youth the sympathies are all 
awakened for the beautiful and the beloved 
Rachel, the only chosen, the betrothed bride. 
As we advance in years, in deeper acquaint- 
ance with human hearts, in truer fellowship in 
human suffering, we learn to feel for the plain 
and hated Leah. There is something deeply 
touching in the quiet sorrow which marks her 
lot ; in her deep consciousness of her husband's 
alienation and her sister's hate. We feel how 
difficult it might have seemed to resist the 



98 THE RIVAL SISTERS : 

authority of the father, when it was aided by 
the pleadings of her own aifection and the 
customs of her people. We glance into the 
tents of Jacob, and contrast Leah with the 
beautiful, the loved, the indulged, the self-willed 
Rachel. There we see her, plain and unat- 
tractive in person, broken in spirit, bowed down 
by the consciousness of her own sin and her 
husband's hate — her sister's bitter contempt — 
striving, though scarce hoping, to win the 
love of her husband ; and welcoming the 
anguish of a mother, with the fond assurance, 
"Now will my husband love me, for I have 
borne him a son." 

We follow the sisters, as, still side by side, 
but with alienated hearts and estranged 
affections, they depart from the tents of their 
father to follow the footsteps of their husband, 
— Rachel and her offspring are the first objects 
of the care, as of the affection, of the patriarch. 



LEAH AND EACHEL. 99 

Yet we find Rachel, the loved and indulged 
wife, more murmuring, more repining, more 
fault-finding than Leah. By sorrow and 
trial, Leah may have learned submission; 
and the dearest earthly hopes disappointed — 
all her affections as a wife crushed and des- 
pised — in her hour of grief, and in the deso- 
lation of a widowhood of hate, she may have 
sought and found that love which never fail- 
eth, which giveth liberally and upbraideth not. 
And He whose ear is ever open to the 
cry of his creatures, who forgives even while 
he punishes their iniquities, pitied Leah, and, 
without upbraiding her for that deceit by 
which she became a wife, gave her the joys 
of a mother ; and in all the names bestowed 
upon her children, Leah at once recognises 
the mercy of God, while she still remembers 
that she is hated of her husband — attesting at 
once her conscious sorrow and her trusting faith. 



100 THE RIVAL SISTERS: 

Rachel was childless — and when she saw 
Leah rejoicing as a mother, it awoke all the 
bitterness of envy. With the unreasonable 
pettishness of a wife ever indulged, she re- 
proached her husband. For once, the anger 
of Jacob was kindled against the idolized 
Rachel. "Am I in God's stead?" said lie. 
The consciousness of being the loved and the 
cherished one — the overflowing tenderness and 
the ready indulgence which Rachel received, 
made her only more exacting and imperious; 
and while Leah seemed softened by trials 
and sorrows, her sister grew more unreasona- 
ble by indulgence, and was at once haughty 
and insolent. So corrupt is human nature, 
that the gratification of our desires too often 
merely excites the pride and haughtiness of 
the human heart, and the prosperous claim 
the blessings of Heaven as a matter of right j 
while it is mercifully ordained that the very 



LEAH AND RACHEL. 101 

sorrow which ever follows transgression, the 
evils which await all departures from duty 
and right, should, by their very tendency, 
awaken repentance and lead to a penitent 
and humble spirit. 

When the daughters of Laban left the 
house of their father, either from a latent 
superstition, or from a family cupidity, Rachel 
stole the household gods of Laban and secre- 
ted them; and with an art worthy of the 
daughter of Laban, she prevented her father 
from reclaiming them; thus paving the way 
for the introduction of idolatry into the house- 
hold of Jacob. He had already introduced 
polygamy by his marriage with her, and, to 
secure her, and thereby gratify her rivalry 
of her sister, he had multiplied his "wives, 
and brought upon himself still heavier sor- 
rows and trials. It was the beauty of Rachel 
which first captivated the eye, and then en- 



102 THE RIVAL SISTERS ! 

thralled the heart of Jacob ; and the wisest 
of men, thus ensnared, are still led into sin 
and folly. All the influences of Rachel upon 
his heart and life seem to have been unhappy ; 
and the narrative shows that the strongest 
passion, gratified in defiance of prudence and 
previously imposed obligation, can only lead to 
disappointment and vexation. The two sisters 
both proved the love of the wife, in leaving all 
at the command of the husband ; and the God 
in whom Jacob still trusted, guarded him 
against all the designs of Laban, averted 
the wrath of his brother, and guided him to 
the land of Isaac. He had passed Jordan 
with his staff and his scrip — he went out an 
outcast, and a fugitive; he returned with the 
train of a chief, the retinue of an Eastern 
prince; and his heart swelled with thanks- 
giving as he recounted the mercy and remem- 
bered the faithfulness of Jehovah. His father 



LEAH AND RACHEL. 103 

was still living — the nurse of Rebekah, who 
so long since had left the family of Bethuel, 
came to close her eyes in the tents of the 
grand-daughter of her former master; but 
the mother who had led her son into sin, who 
had taught him to practise that deceit which 
had recoiled upon himself, is not mentioned. 
She, doubtless, was laid by the side of Abra- 
ham and of Sarah, in the cave of Machpelah. 
She had anticipated a short absence, a tran- 
sient separation from her son. She purposed 
to send for him to return to his father, that 
he might yet be heir of the estate ; but when 
Jacob did return in wealth and honour — yet 
bearing that bitter burden of care and sor- 
row, from which no honour, no wealth are 
exempt, — she who would have assuredly ex- 
ulted in the one, and sympathized with the 
other, was not in the tent of Isaac. She came 
not forth to welcome her son, to embrace her 



104 THE RIVAL SISTERS: 

relatives and daughters or caress their chil- 
dren. Her place in the tent and at the board 
was vacant — her voice was hushed — her heart 
cold. The places that had known her, knew 
her no more. And thus it often is. Before 
man attains wealth or honour, those who had 
most rejoiced to witness it have passed away ; 
while still, fair as is the outward lot, there are 
internal sorrows, imbittering every pleasant 
draught, and casting a shadow over all the 
brightness of human existence. Thus it is that 
the most prosperous are often followed by a 
cloud, reflecting glory and radiance upon such 
as arc without, but covering with gloom and 
darkness those who fall within its shadow. 

And soon followed the bitterest trial of 
Leah's life, — the shame, sorrow, and widow- 
hood of her only daughter ; avenged by 
those who neglected to guard her — while the 
husband, though indifferent to the sorrow and 



LEAH AND RACHEL. 105 

love of the wife, must have felt the anguish 
of the father. 

And the rivalry and strife of the sisters was 
over. " Give me children or else I die," was 
the cry of the wife whose wishes had been 
laws — and the prayer prompted by hate and 
envy was answered. Yet Rachel died. And 
in that hour of mortal agony, of bitter suffer- 
ing, Leah probably stood by her sister. With 
affections estranged, love turned into bitter- 
ness, with hearts alienated, but fates insepa- 
rably united, they had passed their days. 
Their tents had been pitched side by side, — 
the voices of their children had been mingled 
together as they fell upon their mothers' ears, 
— they had been called to worship at the same 
altar, — they had been members of the same 
household. 

Forced thus to dwell together, constantly to 
meet, to be familiar with the same objects, to 



106 THE RIVAL SISTERS : 

have the same interests, they were alienated, but 
not separated ; and if their feelings were crushed, 
they were not all uprooted. As Leah saw her 
younger, her beautiful sister in the hour of 
extremity, in the agonies of a mother's suf- 
ferings, the sympathies of a woman must 
have risen with the love of a sister, and bitter 
tears of repentant sorrow must she have shed 
upon the pallid brow and quivering lips, as 
the hopes and the memories of youth and child- 
hood gathered around, to reproach her for 
that deceit by which she had sown their path 
through mutual life with thorns, and made 
their joys to be but ashes. There are no 
tears so bitter as those which are shed by 
affection, too late revived, over those whom 
we have loved and yet injured, — over those 
from whom we have suffered ourselves to be 
estranged. 

Rachel was buried in the way to Ephrath, 



LEAH AND RACHEL. 107 

which is Bethlehem. She was not laid in the 
sepulchre of Abraham. The children were left 
to the fostering care of her hated sister. Her 
sons passed through trials from which she could 
not guard them, and they came to honours 
while she knew it not. At this distance, her 
life seems to us a dream — a few years of 
pleasant childhood, a short vision of youth- 
ful love, — then comes the strife of life, its 
stern discipline, its bitter trials, its disappointed 
hopes, and its termination in the grave. 

As we dwell upon the characters so truth- 
fully delineated in the word of God, and 
follow the record of human pride, passion and 
infirmity, we are taught at once to magnify 
and adore the patience, the forbearance and 
the mercy of Jehovah. And let us remember 
that it is because these characters are reflected 
in the pure mirror of truth that the dark 
so plainly appear. In every age the 



108 THE RIVAL SISTERS: 

heart of man is the same ; but the temptations 
which | especially evince this depravity may be 
peculiar to some particular age or condition. 

We know not how long Leah survived her 
sister. Her advancing years were not exempt 
from affliction, and age brings its own trials ; 
yet prosperity rested upon Jacob — and in the 
decline of life she may have known happiness 
desired, but not realized, in youth. 

After the death of his beloved Rachel, the 
heart of Jacob may have turned to Leah, and 
a peaceful friendship have succeeded the storm 
and the conflicts of "youthful passion. Sorrow 
may have knit hearts softened by the mutual 
consciousness of error and by the tears of 
repentance, and strengthened by the hopes 
of pardon, and drawn to each other by the 
strong ties of parental love for their mutual 
offspring. When the patriarch was called 
into Egypt, Leah went not with him. He 



LEAH AND RACHEL. 109 

had laid her in the gathering-place of his 
sons, in the tent of his fathers. From the 
touching expression of the dying patriarch — 
himself far from the land of his fathers' sepul- 
chres — "And there I buried Leah," we feel 
that, in age and bereavement, the heart of 
Jacob turned to Leah. The repudiated wife of 
his youth became the solace of his age, and her 
memory awoke the last tender recollections 
in the dying patriarch. As we have read the 
book of God, we have been taught that good, 
inordinately coveted, or obtained by injustice 
and deceit, ever brings a curse. The princi- 
pal actors in the events recorded in these 
chapters of Genesis, may have secured the ob- 
ject which they sought, yet the attainment did 
not avert or mitigate the punishment of the 
treachery by which it was secured. 

Rebekah obtained the birth-right and the co- 
veted blessing for her favourite child, and by 



110 THE RIVAL SISTERS: 

that act separated him from herself and 
doomed him to a banishment from his father's 
house, and from that hour she saw his face no 
more. Laban secured by his deceit the mar- 
riage of his unattractive daughter and the 
establishment of the beautiful Rachel, but he 
thus alienated the children he still seems to 
have loved, and that wealth which he so 
coveted. 

Leah, by her connivance at her father's 
deceit, married the man she loved, but it was 
to lead a life of bitter, of heart-consuming 
sorrow. Jacob, departing from the institution 
of marriage that he might yet possess Rachel, 
entailed upon himself a career of strife, bitterness 
and disappointment ; and introduced into his 
family an example that became a fruitful 
source of individual depravity and national 
corruption ; while he first witnessed the evil 
effects of his complicated domestic relations 



LEAH AND RACHEL. Ill 

in the conduct of his eldest son, and felt at 
once his shame as a husband and his reproach 
as a father. And are not these things written 
for our edification ? Are we not, in every page 
of God's word, taught explicitly that for man 
there is neither safety nor happiness save in 
the path of duty and of literal obedience ? That 
each departure from the rule of right, what- 
ever be the motive, and crowned as it may seem 
to be with success, draws a long succession of sin 
and sorrow in its train ? Many have studied 
the word of God to justify sin, or palliate 
guilt, by the examples of the former dispen- 
sation. Let it be carefully studied, and it will 
show that the transgression which secured a 
positive object, still brought its punishment, — 
if delayed, never remitted — although successful, 
never justified. The word of God never 
justifies crimes, though in infinite wisdom He 



112 THE RIVAL SISTERS: 

over-rules them to promote the designs of his 
eternal providence. 

Modern days and Christian institutions allow 
no examples of the exact type of the strife and 
rivalry exhibited in the household of the patri- 
arch of Israel. Yet, while human nature re- 
mains as it is, there will ever be the jealousies, 
the strifes, the bitterness arising from misplaced 
affection, or alienated hearts, or jarring interests. 
There is still to be found the coquetry which 
would win love from a sister or a friend, and 
the treachery that would supplant the rival — 
as there are still fathers who, for motives of in- 
terest, would sacrifice their daughters, regardless 
of their hearts or their happiness. Youthful 
beauty still attracts the eye and wins the heart, 
and the best and wisest of men are too often 
enthralled by mere personal attraction. 

Human nature is ever the same, and the 
motives and feelings which swayed the genera- 



LEAH AND RACHEL. 113 

tions who have mouldered back to dust are 
still felt and acknowledged. 

While we thus attempt to trace the outlines 
of the domestic history of these individuals, we 
cannot but feel that there is a surpassing beauty 
and excellence in the character of Abraham. 
He bore the fresh impress of a renovated world, 
and was truly worthy of the pre-eminence which 
is always allotted to him. Isaac seems to 
have dwelt in quiet, peaceful prosperity. In- 
heriting great wealth, dwelling until mature 
age with his parents, there seem to have 
been few occasions in which the prominent 
traits of the character are displayed. His 
life offers less of interest, less to excite, less 
to praise and less to blame than either Abra- 
ham's or Jacob's. The father's energy, patience, 
faith and obedience had prepared the way for 
the prosperity of the son ; and Isaac, nursed in 
affluence and cherished by maternal affection, 



114 THE RIVAL SISTERS: 

seems to have exhibited less energy, enterprise 
and decision than either his father or his descend- 
ants. His premature blindness doubtless con- 
duced to this inactive life. Yet he trusted and 
obeyed the God of his father, though he enjoyed 
neither the exalted faith of Abraham, nor was 
he favoured with the enlarged prophetic views 
of Jacob. 

In all the trials and infirmities of Jacob — 
from the day in which he left his father's 
house until the hour in which " he gathered 
his feet in his bed and died" in Egypt — we 
see the evidence and the growth of true piety, 
of enlarged faith. He was encompassed with 
infirmities, and these infirmities betrayed him 
into sins, which brought in their train the sor- 
rows which, through Divine grace, purified and 
sanctified him. Thus his character excites our 
increasing love and sympathy, and his advancing 
piety our veneration. 



LEAH AND EACHEL. 115 



From the glimpses we obtain of the families 
of Nahor, Bethuel, and Laban, we trace a 
gradual departure from Jehovah among the 
descendants of Shem. Nahor and Abraham 
were possessors of like faith. They both 
worshipped the God of their fathers — of Shem, 
of Noah, of Methusaleh, of Enoch, of Seth, of 
Adam. Bethuel's household still remained a 
household of faith, but in Laban we see the 
beginning of a departure from the true God. 
The first steps towards idolatry were taken. 
There was the resort to a sensible representa- 
tion, — some image probably used as a symbol 
of the true God at first, but certainly ensnaring 
the heart, and ending in idolatry. Thus the 
gods of Laban, which Rachel stole, were lead- 
ing him and his family rapidly to idol-worship, 
and to forgetfulness of the true God. Still he 
had not sunk into gross idolatry. Laban still 
pledged himself, and invoked the name of the 



116 THE RIVAL SISTERS: 

God of Abraham and of Nahor, and of their 
fathers, when he entered into covenant with 
Jacob. He had not yet altogether abjured 
the worship of Jehovah : he had begun to 
mingle a false worship with it, and thus pre- 
pared the way for the full apostasy of his 
decendants. 

That the chosen people might be kept from 
the taint of idolatry, Jacob left Laban ; yet 
Rachel had stolen her father's images — and 
there is then great significance in that act 
by which Jacob renewed his covenant with 
God, when called upon to build the altar at 
Bethel. 

" And Jacob said unto his household, and to 
all that were with him, Put away the strange 
gods that are among you and be clean, and 
change your garments: and let us arise and 
go up to Bethel; and I will make there 1 ;iu 
altar unto God, who answered me in the day 



LEAH AND RACHEL. 117 

of my distress, and was with me in the way 
which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all 
the strange gods which were in their hand, and 
all their ear-rings which were 'in their ears; 
and Jacob hid them under the oak which was 
by Shechem." 

Probably the ear-rings were used as heathen 
charms or amulets. While idolatry, as a leprosy, 
was thus beginning to infect the household, he 
saw the need of their purification ; and there 
seems no accidental connection between this 
searching out and putting away of idolatry in 
the household of Jacob and the following death 
of Rachel: "With whomsoever thou findest thy 
gods, let him not live." 

The cherished wife of Jacob, deeply tainted 
with the superstitions by which her family were 
corrupting the religion of* Jehovah, may have 
been thus removed to prevent further contagion. 
While the apostle may refer to this example in 



118 THE RIVAL SISTERS. 

his promise: "Nevertheless she shall be saved 
in child-bearing, if she continue in the faith." 
And this sin may have excluded Kachel from 
the sepulchre of Abraham. The plague-spot 
disappears from this time, and the purification 
of the household was availing. For many 
generations, whatever their other sins, the 
children of Jacob were kept from idolatry. 




MIRIAM. 



THE INFLUENCE OF WOMEN UPON THE DESTINY 

AND CHARACTER OF MAN, AS EXEMPLIFIED IN 

THE LIFE OF MOSES. 



-s HERE were designs of 

U infinite wisdom to be 

• ? yS accomplished by the 

long sojourn of the 

j^7'7~^ children of Jacob in 

r^ ]) ffTfl Egypt- The people of 

™ Sp l§> (St** Israel were appointed 

to guard the name and worship of Jehovah, 

until He who was to bring life and immortality 

to light should rise from among them. Until 

the " Star" that was to come from Jacob should 

shed its glorious radiance over this darkened 

119 




120 MIRIAM. 

earth. When all the children of men were de- 
parting from God, He chose this family to 
perpetuate the memory of his works and his 
mighty acts in preserving the first history of 
the race, and to prepare the way for the fulfil- 
ment of the designs of infinite mercy toward 
a sinful and apostate world. By miracles and 
judgments, by type and prophecy, by altars 
and sacrifices, he kept before this people the 
mysterious promise given in the hour of trans- 
gression. 

From this family was to descend him who 
was to be the light of the Gentiles, and the 
glory of Israel, him who was at once the Al- 
mighty Saviour, the everlasting Father, the 
wonderful Counsellor, the man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief, who bore our sickness, 
and took upon himself our iniquities. And 
while from the family of Israel that high 
spiritual influence was to emanate, which was 



MIRIAJ 



121 



to renovate men's moral nature and change 
the aspect and condition of the race, restoring 
the knowledge of the true God; and again, 
through the great atoning sacrifice, opening the 
gates of eternal life and bringing spiritual bless- 
ings to all mankind, — the character of the chil- 
dren of Israel, their civil institutions, their 
legislation, their history, their laws, their lite- 
rature, were to leave their impress upon all 
the nations of the earth. 

The apostle accounts it the chief honour of 
the Jews that unto them were committed the 
oracles of God. They were employed to tran- 
scribe and preserve the inspired books. From 
them went forth those who first announced the 
great truths of a Saviour crucified and a Com- 
forter promised. For successive ages the nation 
of Israel stood surrounded by the heathen 
world, — stood the witnesses of the faithfulness 
of Jehovah, the monuments of his truth and 



122 MIRIAM. 

power, the only nation upon the face of this 
earth who worshipped the true God. 

Thick moral darkness shrouded all other 
lands — the nation of Israel ;;' light in 

their dwellings, and the beams of the rising Sun 
of righteousness fell upon them and revealed 
the gross darkness around them. 

And he who had chosen the people of Israel 
for such a high purpose, in infinite wisdom de- 
vised the means to fit them for their destina- 
tion, and he guided and guarded them in each 
stage of their national existence. Egypt was 
one of the first kingdoms founded after the 
deluge, and it is probable that those who re- 
peopled it after this event, had retained many 
impressions of the former world. Her monu- 
ments, yet remaining, attest the high antiquity 
of her arts and sciences, and her early ad- 
vancement in refinement and civilization. 

Her priests and wise men were the instruct- 



MIRIAM. 123 

ors of the ancient world, and the philosophers 
of Greece resorted to Egypt to study legislation 
and philosophy, and Egypt imparted to Greece, 
and Greece to Rome, the arts and sciences by 
which they refined and elevated Europe,, 

God designed Egypt to be the nursery of the 
nation of Israel. The granary of the ancient 
world offering abundant sustenance, he brought 
Jacob and his sons into it as one family, and 
here they remained until they multiplied and 
increased, and became like the stars of heaven 
for number ; and He who led them into Egypt 
ordained all the events of their national history 
so as to promote his own eternal plans. 

The patriarch led his children, with their 
flocks and herds, — the wealth of a pastoral peo- 
ple, — into this land as the invited guests of Pha- 
raoh, the monarch of Egypt. And as he bowed 
before the king, the aged patriarch taught him 
at once the brevity of man's life and the un- 



124 MIRIAM. 

satisfying nature of all earthly enjoyments, as 
recalled at the close of a long pilgrimage : 
" Few and evil have been the days of the years 
of my pilgrimage." Pharaoh received the aged 
man with respect, and showed him all honour ; 
while in consideration of the pastoral habits of 
his sons, a portion of land, separate from the 
Egyptians, was allotted them for a place of 
abode. Thus they were kept a distinct, un- 
mingled people, and enabled to maintain their 
own peculiar institutions, practise the rites of 
their own religion, and preserve the worship of 
the God of Abraham. And in all the oppres- 
sion which they here sustained, we do not find 
that their religion was ever persecuted or their 
rites forbidden. And as Egypt was the cradle 
of the nation of Israel, so it was to be the school 
in which the children of Jacob were to form a 
national character. The wandering, pastoral 
tribes, transformed into an agricultural people 



MIRIAM. 125 

and settled residents, and instructed in the arts 
of civilized life, were fitted to take possession 
of the allotted heritage. After fostering their 
infancy and feebleness, the monarchs of Egypt 
gradually changed their course as the increas- 
ing numbers of the Israelites excited jealous 
apprehension. Yet all this varying policy and 
every cruel edict advanced the designs of Jeho- 
vah and promoted the welfare of his chosen 
people. The cruelty of the Egyptians alien- 
ated the hearts of the Israelites from the nation 
and from the land of Egypt, and kept freshly 
before them the remembrance of the inherit- 
ance promised. While considered as strangers, 
treated as aliens, and surrounded by enemies, the 
bonds of brotherhood were more closely drawn, 
and they clung together, a distinct and separate 
people. 

The tribes were one nation. While the 
people of Israel were oppressed, they were not 



126 MIRIAM. 

enslaved. They were tributary, but not re- 
duced to personal bondage. They dwelt to- 
gether in that portion of Egypt assigned to 
them. They spoke their own language. They 
seem to have regulated their internal affairs by 
their own elders. They maintained their own 
worship. Their family relations were unbroken. 
They must have amassed riches, for they 
brought great wealth out of Egypt, as the of- 
ferings at the tabernacle show — and although 
in part this may have been received from the 
restitution which the conscience-smitten Egyp- 
tians offered upon their departure, all could not 
have been thus derived. The whole narrative 
of the Israelites shows that they were rich in 
silver and gold, and possessed much cattle. 
Yet all their property was personal — they owned 
no land. And much of the tribute was, doubt- 
less, exacted as rent, paid by many in personal 
labour ; and while the}' thus erected, perhaps, 



MIRIAM. 127 

the proudest monuments of Egyptian art by 
this enforced labour, they were acquiring the va- 
rious knowledge needful to a nation ; while their 
very task-masters, by compelling them to ac- 
quire the habits of industry, to which a pastoral 
people are always averse, were school-masters, 
needful though harsh, teaching them to deve- 
lop their energies and forcing them to exercise 
patience and to acquire skill. 

Learning and wisdom have departed from 
Egypt. She has long been the basest of king- 
doms. The race of the Pharaohs has passed 
away. She has been for ages governed by 
slaves. Temple and palace are in ruins. Her 
tombs, sacred and precious, have been pillaged ; 
and the bones of her great and noble ones, her 
priests and kings, feed the fire by which the 
wandering Arab prepares his food. Yet many 
monuments of her ancient arts remain^* inte- 
resting as attesting her power, grandeur, and 



128 MIRIAM. 

high advancement in civilization, and still more 
valuable as corroborating the sacred history 
and throwing light on many passages of the 
inspired word, — at once showing the former re- 
sidence of the Israelites in Egypt, the close 
connection of these ancient people, and afford- 
ing proofs of that wisdom which selected Egypt 
for the cradle and school of the chosen race. 

The Egyptians, gradually after the flood, 
lost the knowledge of Jehovah and departed 
from his worship. 

At the time Joseph married the daughter of 
the priest of On, the Egyptians could not have 
sunk into that gross idolatry which contrasted 
so strangely with their wise legislation and 
scientific attainments ; and their priests are 
supposed to have concealed, under mystic 
symbols, mysterious truths, which they imparted 
to the initiated, while they taught a grosser 
system to the common mind. While in Egypt 



MIRIAM. 129 

ihe Israelites seem never to have been exposed 
to the debasing immoralities which prevailed 
among the nations around the promised land. 

The children of Jacob sojourned in the land of 
Ham four hundred years. When Jehovah called 
his people out of Egypt they were fitted to re- 
ceive the laws and institutions which he designed 
to give them, and to take the high position he 
assigned them among the nations of the earth. 
And lest, during their long sojourn in the wil- 
derness, they should lose the arts of civilized 
life, they were employed in the construction of 
the tabernacle. By the minute enumeration 
of all that was required for the completion of 
this work, we see that the erection involved an 
extensive acquaintance with the mechanical 
arts, and of those, too, which indicate a high 
degree of advancement in the luxuries of 
polished life. Thus the generation born in the 
wilderness were instructed, and preserved from 



130 MIRIAM. 

degenerating into mere shepherds, hunters, or 
warriors. The restless were occupied, and the 
work proved a bond of union for the whole peo- 
ple, exciting the interest and employing the 
energies of all the different classes of the great 
multitude. 

The long ages of the sojourn of the children 
of Jacob were drawing to a close. The iniquity 
of the Canaanites was now full ; the children 
of Israel were prepared to be numbered among 
the nations of the earth ; and the events dic- 
tated by the craft and policy of men were or- 
dained to promote the infinite designs of Jeho- 
vah. For four hundred years the descendants 
of Jacob had dwelt in Goshen. From a pas- 
toral they were already become an agricultural 
people ; they had learned to prize the comforts 
of an established life, of quiet, peaceful homes, 
of pleasant places of abode. Dwelling in the 
richest portion of Egypt, protected from all 



MIRIAM. 131 

foreign aggression, they there enjoyed abun- 
dance, peace, and prosperity, to which their wan- 
derings in the desert furnished a sad contrast. 
The policy of Egypt had excluded the Israel- 
ites from her crimes. The energy, the love of 
change and adventure, which a martial life im- 
parts, were unfelt ; and had not oppression 
driven the Israelites from Egypt, the promise 
of that goodly land destined for their race had 
hardly induced the nation to leave their pre- 
sent abundance and protection. Thus, by the 
various dispensations of his providence, Jeho- 
vah was at once preparing a guide, leader, 
ruler, and future lawgiver for his people, while 
by the continued vexation, oppression, and 
cruelty of the Egyptian rulers, he was suffering 
them to alienate the affections of the children 
of Jacob from a country which had become the 
native land of the Israelites, which was the 
birth-place of generation after generation. 



132 MIRIAM. 

At the time Miriam, the sister of Moses, ap- 
pears before us, the children of Israel had 
reached the fourth generation. A family had 
become a nation, a people in the bosom of an- 
other, dwelling together, distinct, separate, too 
numerous to be easily or safely held in subjec- 
tion, too valuable as tributaries to be relin- 
quished. Thus to hold them safely in bondage 
and to prevent their further increase, it became 
the settled policy of Egypt to oppress and de- 
grade them. As their jealous apprehensions 
were at length awakened, by a policy as pro- 
found as it was cruel, the Egyptian monarch.* 
endeavoured, in destroying the sons of this peo- 
ple, to force the daughters of Israel to inter- 
marry with their oppressors, that they might 
obtain the wealth of the sons of Jacob, while 
the name and memory of his family would be 
swept from the earth. Yet dwelling, as the 
Israelites did, in a separate province, it was not 



MIRIAM. 133 

easy for Pharaoh to find those who would exe- 
cute his purposes ; and the first efforts to cut 
off the race of the chosen, failed. He was 
however so intent upon their extermination, that 
he did not hesitate to direct that all the male 
children of the Israelites should be cast into 
the river as soon as they were born. 

While there were so many to court the favour 
of the monarch and ever ready for the darkest 
deeds, how could the sons of the Hebrews now 
escape? When Moses was born, his mother 
hid him three months ; and when concealment 
was no longer possible, she sought for the babe 
a strange place of safety — in the very element 
which was indicated for its destruction. The 
slender ark is framed by the mother's hands, 
and deposited among the flags on the bank 
of the Nile. The morning was perhaps dawn- 
ing, and the sky yet gray, when the anxious 
mother withdrew. 



134 MIRIAM. 

In a few hours after, the chant of the boat- 
men is suddenly hushed, and the passing labour- 
ers shroud their heads in token of reverence, as, 
surrounded by her attendants, the daughter of 
Pharaoh approaches the river. The slight ark, 
with its precious burden, floating among the 
reeds, attracts her eye, and, as her maidens 
draw it from the water, the wail of the desolate 
infant strikes her ear. 

" The babe wept" — and full fountains of 
womanly tenderness were broken up in the 
heart of the princess of Egypt. " This is one 
of the Hebrew children," said she; and as she 
drew him from the waves, she resolved to save 
and adopt the child. 

Miriam, the sister, had lingered near to 
watch, if not to save the child. We may fancy 
the Hebrew maiden at a little distance, eagerly 
bending forward, and gazing witli intense and 
breathless interest. And when the princess 



MIRIAM. 135 

announces her intention to protect the infant, 
in all the gladness of childhood she bounds 
forward, and, mingling with the royal train, 
asks, " Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the 
Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child 
for thee ?" And Pharaoh's daughter said unto 
her, "Go;" and the maid went and brought the 
child's mother ! 

Thus had the God of Israel overruled all the 
designs of evil to his people, by providing in the 
very family of Pharaoh a shelter and a home 
for the child — doomed by the impious monarch 
to destruction — but designed by Jehovah to 
be the saviour of his people. He who was thus 
drawn from the water was the ordained de- 
liverer, guide, legislator, and prophet of Israel. 

As Jehovah had appointed him to this high 
vocation, he not only guarded his life, thus 
threatened, but made the instruments intended 
for the extermination of the race the means of 



136 MIRIAM. 

the full accomplishment of all its mysterious 
destiny. 

The child thus adopted into the royal family 
was not only saved from death, but was thus 
placed under influences most propitious for the 
attainment of all the various knowledge which 
could fit him for the high station to which he was 
destined. That helpless infant was not only to 
be the deliverer of Israel, but by his political in- 
stitutions, his legislative enactments, his moral 
precepts, his inspired teachings, he w, 
mould the character of his own people, and to 
influence other nations down through all coming 
ages. High was the honour allotted him as 
the deliverer and the lawgiver of Israel — still 
higher that as the prophet of the Lord, lie 
was the promulgator of the great moral laws 
of the universe, originally engraven on the 
hearts of men, but now so effaced by sin as to 
be scarcely legible ; — he was to establish those 



MIRIAM. 137 

institutions which were to perpetuate the name 
and the worship of Jehovah among the children 
of men ; and that memorial which, by a long line 
of types and sacrifices, was at once to prefigure 
and prepare for the great atoning sacrifice, of- 
fered for a lost world. 

Of all the fallen sons of Adam, none were 
ever destined to a station of more arduous re- 
sponsibility, of more extensive and long-con- 
tinued influence than that appointed to this 
Hebrew infant ; and He who had marked out his 
destiny ordained the means which were to pre- 
pare him for it. Transplanted into the family of 
Pharaoh, he was there instructed in all the " wis- 
dom of the Egyptians," and Egypt (as we know) 
was the fountain of ancient learning, science, 
and philosophy. While Jehovah communicated 
by direct inspiration to Moses, yet the mind of 
the ruler and leader of Israel had been pre- 
pared by that instruction which develops the 



138 MIRIAM. 

capacity, expands the mind, and enlarges the 
apprehension to receive and understand the in- 
stitutions Jehovah gave his people, and he was 
thus enabled to co-operate with an enlightened 
mind in all the designs of God. But if the 
schools of Egypt imparted that intellectual at- 
tainment, mental discipline and knowledge of 
legislation in its various forms, so necessary for 
the law-giver, there were other influences which 
were needful for the perfection of the character. 
There was a knowledge higher and holier than 
that ever taught by priests or Grecian philoso- 
phers, — a wisdom beyond that of the Egyptians, 
"the knowledge of the Lord," the God of his 
fathers, and the first great truths of religion 
should be breathed into the soul in the whispers 
of parental love. The earthly parent should 
lead the child to the feet of the great Creator. 
And then in the formation of a character 
which was to leave its impress upon all future 



MIRIAM. 139 

ages to the close of time, the affections were to 
be cultivated, the sympathies awakened, and all 
that is pure and kind and elevated in the na- 
ture of man drawn forth. And where is the 
influence which so gently moulds the character, 
refining, softening, and elevating it, as the af- 
fectionate, intelligent sister? As a man ad- 
vances in life, the continual influence and asso- 
ciation of virtuous and accomplished women is 
felt in all the relations he is called to sustain. 

We see in the various circumstances of the 
life of Moses a Divine recognition of the value 
of the family relation and of the importance 
of the influence of women in the formation of 
character. 

Before Moses was admitted to the schools of 
Egyptian learning, before he was exposed to the 
snares and the splendours of a court, before he 
was called to a throne, he had learned lessons 
of the deepest wisdom from the lips of his pa- 



140 MIRIAM. 

rents. One higher than the royal of earth 
spoke through the princess, when she said, 
" Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will 
give thee wages. ' ' And faithfully did the mother 
fulfil her charge. She strove to imbue the soul 
of her child with living faith, while upon that 
infant heart she impressed . the maxims of 
eternal truth — she imparted those lessons of 
trust and confidence, and inculcated that deep 
conviction of the power of truth, which led the 
man, by the grace of God, in the prime and 
flush of life, to refuse to be called the son of 
Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer 
affliction with the people of God than to enjoy 
the pleasures of sin for a season. 

Had that mother been unfaithful to her high 
trust, had she infused into that infant heart les- 
sons of ambition and worldliness, he had perhaps 
failed in the hour of trial, and another had led 
the tribes of Israel to the chosen land. A little 



MIRIAM. 141 

band guarded Moses ; the princess of Egypt, 
the mother of Moses, and his sister Miriam. 
Each one exerted her peculiar influence upon 
his character, while his future destiny attested 
the varied power of these influences and their 
relative value. 

As the saviour of the young Hebrew, as his 
protectress and adopted mother, the daughter 
of Pharaoh had a large claim upon him, and to 
her he was indebted for many of those high at- 
tainments which fitted him for his office. The 
slight incidental notices of the daughter of 
Pharaoh give us a delightful impression of her 
character. 

There is something higher and nobler than a 
princess. She was a true woman, filled with all 
the quiet sympathies and kind affections of 
her sex, and possessing an energy and a perse- 
vering constancy which led her to fulfil her 



142 MIRIAM. 

generous purposes, and made her impulses bear 
the fruits of benevolent action. 

Such women show what women should be, 
and such women in all ages make the influence 
of their characters to be felt. To her fostering 
care Moses owed life and advancement, educa- 
tion, honour, the standing of a prince, the 
polish and the refinement of the court. She 
proved her appreciation of knowledge, and we 
may well infer her own cultivated intelligence 
from the care with which she provided for the 
instruction of her charge. She showed that she 
could feel and that she cherished all the sym- 
pathies of domestic love, by providing for their 
indulgence, by allowing their continuance, and 
yielding to their claims, even though sin 
princess of Egypt, the daughter of the haughty 
Pharaoh, and her adopted child belonged to a 
race studiously oppressed, degraded, and ex- 
posed to all contumely, and while, doubtless, 



MIKIAM. 143 

she was no stranger to the prejudices which led 
her countrymen to look upon the sons of Israel 
as an outcast and despicable race. Still the 
bonds of national affection, of kindred and 
brotherhood, were all respected. The whole 
narrative shows that Moses was never alienated 
from his family, never taught to forget that he 
was a Hebrew. His patroness felt that there 
were holy ties never to be disregarded nor 
trampled upon. 

And while the princess of Egypt surrounded 
her infant charge with right influences, while 
she provided wisely for his intellectual culture, 
she likewise brought the influence of her own 
personal character to bear upon him. The influ- 
ence of a pure woman, who unites refinement to 
intelligence, and adds to them the polish of the 
court without its corruption, would be as powerful 
as it would be salutary, and when to the higher 
qualities, mental and moral, the polished refine- 



144 MIRIAM. 

ment and graceful attention to all the proprie- 
ties of life are imparted, a high finish is given 
to the character. Nor was that acquired grace 
and courtly manner a thing of frivolous import. 
It exerted an important influence upon the fu- 
ture destiny of the individual. The successful 
leaders of great multitudes have often owed al- 
most as much to that high bearing and dignified 
demeanour which should be the distinct badge of 
those who are numbered with the great, as to 
their skill and discernment ; and while treated 
in the court of Pharaoh as a scion of royalty, 
the young Hebrew acquired that air of con- 
scious authority to which inferior minds al- 
ways defer. He gained there that knowledge 
of courtly splendour and gayety which forced 
in him the conviction of their perfect insuffi- 
ciency for the high demands of the spiritual 
nature, and that knowledge of the heart of man 
and its depraved qualities most needful to one 



MIRIAM. 145 

who was at once to lead and control a multi- 
tude, and who was to stand before kings as the 
envoy of Jehovah. 

The Israelites never seem to have entered 
the Egyptian armies. It would have been con- 
trary to the policy of the kings either to 
have encouraged a martial spirit or to have 
placed arms in the hands of this multitude ; yet 
as one of the family of Pharaoh, Moses led the 
armies of Egypt; And needful it was that the 
future leader of Israel should be well instructed 
in all the tactics of war — should understand all, 
the providing for, the ordering, and the encamp- - 
ing of vast hosts. It was perhaps only by ar- 
duous military service that he could have deve- 
loped that capacity indicated by the vast skill 
with which an army of six hundred thousand 
men, encumbered with their wives and little 
ones, could be encamped in regular order, 
whether marching or resting. Ever desiring 



146 MIRIAM. 

peace and acting on the defensive, yet ready 
to repel aggression, for forty years the nation 
of Israel were encamped as the hosts of an 
army. Each tribe with its own banner, march- 
ing and countermarching, taking down and 
putting up their tents, with all the skill and 
regularity of a disciplined army, and often en- 
gaged in actual warfare. He who could thus 
order and regulate such a host must have pos- 
sessed the skill and science of the general. 
While the habits of long command, added to 
the consciousness of authority and Divine reli- 
ance, enabled him to prevent or control turbu- 
lent outbreaks. 

"While the legislator of Israel owed so much 
to the fostering care of the daughter of Pha- 
raoh in preparing him for his high destination, 
we cannot but feel a deep interest in her who so 
unconsciously contributed toward an influence 
and prepared an instrumentality quite adverse 



MIRIAM. J£i 

to the apparent interests of her people. We 
cannot but hope that, while she thus hastened 
the accomplishment of promise and prediction, 
she was herself led to the knowledge and wor- 
ship of Israel's God. 

Might not one who thus adopted the brother, 
encircle in her affection the sister whose affec- 
tionate entreaty gave the babe a mother for its 
nurse ? The fraternal affection which marks the 
family seems to indicate more than occasional 
intercourse. Between Miriam and her brother 
there was that sympathy which always results 
from an intimate association. The princess of 
Egypt may have imparted to Miriam many of 
the accomplishments of the courtly circle, for we 
find that she was skilled in music, that she led 
the dance ; while, in return, Miriam may have 
imparted that higher knowledge and those deep 
truths of which her people were the appointed 
conservators, and the daughter of Pharaoh may 



148 MIRIAM. 

have tasted the blessings which were held in 
trust for future ages. 

Miriam was the only sister of Moses, and she 
first appears as watching the fate of that child 
in whose destiny all the ages and all the nations 
of earth were to have an interest. The tender 
care which watched the cradle on the Nile con- 
tinued through life, and from the day Moses was 
saved, down to the day when Miriam died in the 
wilderness, she seems ever associated with her 
brothers in all their efforts and designs. The 
influence of the sister is peculiarly her own. 
It is felt in early life in its softening, refining, 
and purifying tendency — in diverting opening 
manhood from rude sports or gross pursuits to 
the enjoyments of a more elevated and pure na- 
ture, and shedding a charm around the pL 
of home ; while, if no other ties intervene, the 
bonds of affection grow stronger with each suc- 
cessive year. 



MIRIAM. 149 

We cannot trace the course of Miriam's life. 
She appears before us for a season and then we 
lose sight of her for many years. She may 
have passed them in the retirement and ob- 
scurity of her rural home in the land of Goshen. 
She may have been counted in the train of the 
princess of Egypt and shone in the court of 
Pharaoh. Princes may have flattered her and 
nobles sued for her love. She seems never to 
have married, — yet her heart may have had its 
own history of love, perhaps unrequited, dis- 
appointed, or sacrificed at the altar of pru- 
dence, of conscience, or, it may be, ambition. 
Oh what a tale of suffering and of enjoyment 
would the history of one human heart present, 
if faithfully recorded ! 

Years had passed : childhood was gone — 
youth was fleeing. The brother had attained 
a high distinction in the court of Egypt. He 
had tasted the pleasures of wisdom and the 



150 MIRIAM. 

enjoyments of science and knowledge, while, as 
the adopted child of Pharaoh's daughter, he 
stood before the people, the prospective heir to 
the crown. 

Thus, in the prime of life, endowed with the 
richest gifts of mind and the attractions of 
manly beauty, adding the polish of the courtier 
to the wisdom of the philosopher — and all the 
adventitious advantages of royal birth received 
by his adoption — there lay before the young 
Hebrew a bright vista of prospective glory 
and honour and earthly happiness. 

But not to sit on the throne of Egypt had 
Jehovah raised this child of the chosen people 
from the death designed by their oppressor. 
Not to fit him for the throne of Egypt had he 
.surrounded him with all that was propitious to 
intellectual and moral attainments and guided 
and watched each step of his course from his 
infancy. 



MIRIAM. 151 

Deep and inscrutable must have seemed the 
designs of Jehovah, as, when all was brightest, 
the dark clouds gathered around this favoured 
son of the Hebrews, and all the promise and pur- 
pose of his saved life seemed defeated. The 
hour of trial . came — probably, as it generally 
comes, suddenly and unexpectedly. It was the 
hour which was to test his principles and prove 
his faith. The hour in which all the allure- 
ments of sense, the gratification of ambition, 
and (it may have seemed) the claims of grateful 
affection, were brought into conflict with the 
stern claims of duty and principle, and in this 
hour he did not fail. He chose rather to suffer 
affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy 
the pleasures of sin for a season. He refused 
to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. 
His choice was made. He abjured the throne 
and left the court. What disappointment must 
have fallen upon hearts who had looked to his 



152 MIRIAM. 

exaltation as a pledge of good for his race, and 
who saw in his downfall the prolonged dominion 
of tyranny and persecution ! 

Yet Moses was not permitted to remain in 
peace, although he had sunk into obscurity. 
He who was to lead the hosts of Israel through 
the great and terrible wilderness — who was to 
endure toil, labours, and privation, needed the 
nerve, the hardihood, the physical training, 
which could not be gained in the luxurious 
courts of the Pharaohs, or in the quiet, and. 
doubtless, comfortable and abundant homes of 
the husbandmen of Goshen. Amid the enjoy- 
ments of home, the pleasures of study, he need 
not have regretted the loss of a throne. 

For many years he, who had been trained in 
luxury and elegance, led the flocks of Jethro, 
and knew all the privations and the endurances 
of the shepherd in the desert. And vffcile his 
frame was thus hardened and invigorated, while 



MIKIAM. 153 

he learned to forego pleasure and endure bodily 
toil, his soul was nourished by solitary medita- 
tion and high communion with God. The phi- 
losopher can find instruction and interest in the 
works of creation, but only he who adds the 
adoration of the worshipper to the wisdom of 
the philosopher is prepared to study the works 
of Jehovah aright. 

What deep thought, what high imaginings, 
what profound reverence must have filled the 
soul of the Hebrew shepherd as he watched the 
stars in the silence and loneliness of the desert. 
As he sat, a solitary and banished man, under 
the shadow of the rocks of the wilderness, how 
strange, how incomprehensible must have 
seemed the events of his past life. The visions 
of his youth, the splendour and warlike pomp 
of the army or the pageant of courts, must 
have come over his soul like a dream. Even 
to us how strange seems this long sojourn in 



154 Mill I AM. 



the wilderness, this enforced inactivity and ap- 
parent uselessness. Yet the God of Israel was 
promoting his own designs both among his peo- 
ple and in the heart of him who was to be their 
leader — weaning them from their place of 
abode, and preparing them for their departure, 
and fitting Moses to be their leader, guide, ruler, 
and lawgiver. Each dispensation of his pro- 
vidence, each passing occurrence, all the 
thoughts, the emotions, the solitary meditations, 
the reverential communion, the occasional in- 
tercourse with the few dwellers of the desert, — 
like the strokes, slight and almost impercep- 
tible in their effect, which the block receives 
from the hand of the sculptor, — all were fitting 
the apparently exiled Hebrew for his high vo- 
cation as a prophet and legislator. 

And it is often thus. For many years may 
Jehovah be preparing his instruments f<»r t hat- 
event to which he destines them, and which they 



MIRIAM. 155 

may then speedily accomplish. Yet this work in 
the soul, by which man is prepared to co-operate 
with his Maker, is silent, unseen, unmarked, so 
that often we may account this time as lost. 
And man, ignorant of his future destiny, and 
of the state to which he is to be called, will 
ever find it his true wisdom carefully to fulfil 
the present duty and to aim at deriving in- 
struction and benefit from each dispensation of 
Divine providence, and from the ordering of 
each event of his life. 

In the careful provision made for the train- 
ing of Moses, in the various instrumentalities 
used to prepare him for his appointed trust, we 
are taught that by no miraculous intervention 
does God supersede the necessity of the im- 
provement of the faculties he has bestowed. 
The more enlightened the understanding, the 
more the powers of reason are cultivated, the 
more intelligently can man serve his Creator, 



156 MIRIAM. 

and the more entirely does he co-operate in the 
designs of Infinite Wisdom. God does not be- 
stow, by direct inspiration, that wisdom or know- 
ledge which is to be gained by the diligent cul- 
tivation of the natural faculties, to save man 
the fatigue and labour of the acquirement. 
Those upon whom he has most richly bestowed 
the gifts of spiritual wisdom have been most 
careful to cultivate their natural endowments. 

Both Paul and Moses were learned before 
they were inspired, but God did not supersede 
the use of the powers of the mind by the higher 
gift of the Spirit. The providential dealings 
of God are adapted to the laws of the human 
mind, and in the government of his creatures he 
never violates the principles which he has esta- 
blished. 

The occupation of the shepherd was at 
length to be abandoned. By oppression and 
suffering and ignominious exactions, the chil- 



MIRIAM. 157 

dren of Israel were prepared to leave their 
homes — the land in which they had dwelt for 
centuries — and venture across the sea and into 
the desert. When we remember that husbandry 
had been the national occupation, when we con- 
sider how strong is the instinct which binds man 
to the land of his birth and the graves of his 
fathers, and how strong is that bond which at- 
taches one to the spot he has cultivated, to the 
land he has ploughed and sowed and reaped, 
we cannot wonder at the coercion needful to 
rouse a people whose energies were all de- 
pressed, and who had been held in check and 
kept stationary for ages. 

But the people were ready to depart. The op- 
pression of Pharaoh had prepared the way for 
the display of the Divine faithfulness and power. 
Jehovah sent his ambassador from the desert to 
the court of the King of Egypt, to demand their 
freedom. During his long exile, most who had 



158 MIRIAM. 

known Moses in his early days, had passed away ; 
and the few that were left would hardly recognise 
in the shepherd of the desert, with his staff for 
his badge of office — bearing the marks of toil 
and exposure, of deep thought and solitary 
meditation — the young and gallant prince, the 
courtier and the warrior of former days. She 
who had cherished him had probably been laid 
in the tomb of her royal race, and the name and 
the memory of Moses may have been forgotten 
in the palace and the court. Yet there he 
stood, before the throne which might have been 
his seat, the ambassador of the King of kings, 
bearing the stern message of Jehovah — "Let 
my people go, that they may hold a feast unto 
me in the wilderness." Yet wo after wo was 
denounced and executed — pledge after pledge 
given and violated — and not until one IdUg wail 
over the dead and dying resounded through 
the land were the children of Israel permitted 



MIRIAM. 159 

to leave the land of Egypt. The loss of three 
millions of subjects, of their labour, their tri- 
bute, and the removal of all their personal pro- 
perty, would weaken and impoverish the king- 
dom. Every motive of policy and pride urged 
the monarch to resist the demand, and thus he 
suffered the penalty due to his contumelious defi- 
ance of the God of Israel, while the judgments 
inflicted upon him strengthened the faith of the 
Israelites. The expulsion of the Moors and 
of the Jews from Spain, the banishment of the 
Huguenots from France, furnish similar though 
not parallel cases, in modern ages; and these 
show that the loss of peaceful, industrious sub- 
jects to a kingdom is like taking the life-blood 
from the system. Centuries have passed, yet 
these nations have not recovered — and thus 
Egypt must long have felt her loss. 

After the tribes of Israel had passed through 
the Red Sea, the sister of Moses again appears 



160 MIRIAM. 

before us. When he poured forth that ehant 
of triumphant thanksgiving — the oldest song of 
nations — Miriam gave a response worthy of the 
sister of the leader of the hosts encamped be- 
fore Lord. With timbrel she led the daughters 
of Israel in the dance. And well might the 
prophetess of Israel teach the dance of an- 
cient Egypt to the daughters of her people on 
this occasion. The representations preserved 
in painting and sculpture show that this #•& 
not the gay and voluptuous movement of 
modern days, but rather a succession of grace- 
ful gestures, regulated by music, expressive of 
joy and emotion. Thus the maidens of Israel 
offered praise and adoration ; nor was it un- 
seemly in the warlike monarch of after ages 
thus to worship before the ark of the Lord, al- 
though his pious act provoked the ridicule of 
the daughter of Baal. 

From this time until the day of her death, Mi- 



MIKIAM. 161 

riam is found co-operating with her brothers in 
their designs and efforts. However the earlier 
years of her life had passed, she had attained 
to a high distinction among her people. While 
she seems to have neither claimed nor exerted 
authority, her rank and position, in her sphere, 
were as well defined and as elevated as that of 
her brothers. Throughout the whole narrative 
we find proofs of the high consideration with 
which she was regarded. 

While in early life her influence as a sister had 
refined and softened the rudeness and rough- 
ness of their boyhood and youth, and similar 
associations with the brothers in mature years 
had enlarged her mind and imparted intelligence 
and strength to her understanding. 

During the long sojourn in the wilderness, 
Miriam, "the prophetess of Israel," was pro- 
bably the counsellor of the mothers and the 
instructress of the daughters of her people; 



162 MIRIAM. 

while between the sisters and the brothers 
there ever seems to have subsisted the most 
tender, confidential friendship. 

But, alas for imperfect woman ! There wai a 
time in which the dark passions and malignant 
tempers of our evil nature so triumphed in the 
hearts of Miriam and Aaron, that they arrayed 
themselves against Moses. The dissension -which 
troubled the camps of their leaders threatened 
to spread and involve the multitude of Israel in 
all the evils of rebellion and civil war. 

During his exile, Moses had married the 
daughter of the priest of Midian. The descend- 
ant of Abraham, Jethro was a worshipper of 
the God of his fathers, and we have recorded 
proofs of his piety and wisdom. Yet the mar- 
riage of Moses was not apparently in accordance 
with the views cither of his brother or sister. 
There is a selfish tenderness sometimes exhibit- 
ed, which leads the dependent mother or single 



M IB I AM. 163 

sister to regard with jealousy one who claims a 
closer tie, and Miriani may not have been free 
from the infirmities of weaker natures. Yet the 
notices, slight as they are, of the "Ethiopian" 
woman, perhaps impress few minds favourably ; 
and we cannot but feel that in herself she may 
not have been all that the friends of the law- 
giver of Israel could have wished in a wife. 
Bred in the seclusion of the wilderness, she was 
probably deficient both in the intelligence and the 
accomplishments which distinguished Miriam. 
And Miriam and Aaron seem at last to have 
cherished feelings of bitterness toward their 
sister-in-law, which were fast extending to the 
brother himself. 

They evidently disliked the foreigner. They 
may have compared the toil-worn daughter 
of Midian with the high-bred maidens of Egypt, 
who in former days would have welcomed the 
addresses of one numbered with the princes 



164 MIRIAM. 

of Egypt, or with the daughters of his own 
people, as offering an alliance more worthy 
the ruler of Israel; and Miriam, elevated by 
the distinction conferred upon her as the pro- 
phetess of Israel, conscious of superiority in all 
feminine accomplishments, seems to have for- 
gotten the love of a sister and to have lost the 
humility befitting a woman. Domestic bitter- 
ness was fast preparing the way for political 
disaffection, and the dark clouds which had 
gathered around the tents of the leaders threat- 
ened to burst upon the whole camp of Israel. 
Then Jehovah himself interposed. As the prin- 
cipal offender, the prophetess of Israel was pub- 
licly rebuked before all the congregation of the 
Lord ; and then, as a leper, expelled from the 
camp, shut out from all human associations, in 
shame and solitude, Miriam, diseased and suf- 
fering, lay for seven days. In this time she 
doubtless humbled herself and repented c f hei 



MIRIAM. 165 

sin. Yet, during this interval, the vast multi- 
tude showed their respect by remaining station- 
ary ; and while Aaron confessed their sin, Moses 
interceded for his faulty, erring, hut still be- 
loved sister. 

If the conduct and fault of Miriam are to be 
censured and deplored, it is to be confessed 
that it was not peculiar to the sister of the 
leaders of the hosts of the Lord. Women 
of later ages, conscious of intellectual superi- 
ority, elevated by position, or merely distin- 
guished by usefulness, have sometimes been 
proud enough to despise the inferior of their 
own sex, and to arrogate to themselves the 
power allotted to man ; and their aw T akened 
pride and vanity have introduced strife and 
confusion into the counsels of those who were 
appointed to guide the people of God. 

There is meaning in this record of the faults 
of those w T hose hearts had been, from infancy 



166 



MIRIAM. 



to age, knit together. While God has implanted 
the natural and domestic affections, they are 
still to be guarded, cherished, and cultivated. 
The jealousies, the petty strifes of domestic 
life, the little dislikes, the unguarded tempers 
of those who dwell together, have sometimes 
alienated hearts that have been united from 
childhood. The love that has grown strong by 
the mutual endurance of oppression, toil, priva- 
tion, and danger, has been turned to gall by the 
infusion of the constant droppings*of domestic 
strife. Pure, unselfish love is the spontaneous 
growth of a holy heart. It must be nurtured 
and tended, or it will wither and die in our 
corrupt nature. 

The afflictions and punishments which harden 
the hearts of those who reject God, bring such 
as love his laws and character to submission 
and penitence. Miriam was restored to her 
former usefulness, probably better fitted for her 



MIRIAM. 167 

high position, while the hearts of the brothers 
seem united anew to each other and to her ; 
and the authority of Moses, vindicated by God, 
was strengthened by his own forbearing love and 
disinterested gentleness. And from thence- 
forth, while a due subjection was observed, there 
seems to have been an entire co-operation 
between them. 

Miriam died in the wilderness of Zin, and 
the brothers buried her. There is a peculiar 
sadness in this separation, occurring, as it 
evidently did, not long before the close of their 
various pilgrimages. 

As we follow the inspired narrative, we are 
naturally impressed by the care with which 
Jehovah selects and prepares those whom He 
intends as the instruments of advancing the 
welfare of his people and his own glory ; and 
while this may be more clearly traced in the 
case of the highly distinguished legislator and 



168 .MI hi AM. 

prophet of Israel, we may be assured that it 
extends not less certainly to the lowest and the 
humblest. 

The influences by which the lawgiver of Israel 
was so early surrounded, we are willing to ac- 
cept as a divine attestation to the power and 
value of female culture in the formation of the 
character. 

Three women are brought distinctly before 
us, as connected with the early history of 
Moses. The mother's high duty and privilege it 
was (as it ever is) to instil into his opening 
mind those great truths and first principles 
which are at the foundation of all excellence. 
Had the nurse of Moses been an Egyptian 
idolatress, the character of the man had doubt- 
less been very different. While Moses owed 
all his worldly advancement to the prim- 
Egypt, he derived other advantages from being 
brought under the familiar influence of one who 



MIRIAM. 169 

preserved, amid the corruptions of a court, the 
best sympathies of our nature. A knowledge 
of human character and a power of adaptation 
to all the circumstances of his eventful life 
were thus imparted, and which could be hardly 
elsewhere acquired, yet they were very needful 
to one who was to fill the office allotted to him. 
God has graciously ordered that while the 
parents and guardians are to pass away, there 
are early ties which are enduring. Where 
families are properly regulated, added years 
strengthen the bonds of natural affection. 
Through all the vicissitudes of his life, the 
brother and sister of Moses clung to him. We 
first see Miriam watching the cradle-ark in 
which the infant was concealed, and she never 
ippears except some event in his career brings 
her into view. Yet, through their long lives 
she was his companion and helper, partici- 
pating in his labours, soothing his sorrows, 



170 MIRIAM. 

and aiding and encouraging him in his work. 
She is a type of a large class — we mean the 
daughters and the sisters who are not wives. 
Her life shows that a woman may be honour- 
able, useful, distinguished, and happy, and yet 
remain single — that the holy duties of the wife 
and the mother are not the only duties. How 
many homes would be comparatively unblessed 
but for the presence of a dutiful daughter or a 
loving sister ! How largely our own age is in- 
debted to women as teachers ; women, who, like 
the prophetess of Israel, while assisting their 
brothers to proclaim the oracles of God, devote 
themselves to the instruction of their own sex, 
and bless men by instructing women ! 



DEBORAH— THE INFLUENCE OF 
WOMAN. 



The book of Judges gives a concise view of 
the people of Israel for a period of four hun- 
dred years, extending from the death of Joshua 
to the birth of Samuel. 

It is peculiarly interesting as showing how 
God deals with the nations of the earth in 
visiting national sins with national punish- 
ments. It has ever been the painful office of 
the historian to record the crimes and misfor- 
tunes of mankind, and to present the out- 
breaks of society rather than to note its 
gradual advance and improvement, or to dwell 
upon the periods of peaceful prosperity. Like 
the records of a court of justice, it presents 
the criminals and the offences and those im- 



IT 2 DEBORAH. 

plicated, while the thousands of peaceful 
citizens are never brought to view. The flow 
of human life is, like that of a mighty river, 
unmarked during its mild course ; but when 
it bursts its bounds and overflows its channel 
and spreads a wide destruction, it is watched 
with interest and its desolating ravages are all 
recorded. 

Of the many women who have attained 
honour and celebrity amidst the intrigues of 
courts and cabinets and the revolutions of em- 
. pires, few have retained the purity and the pe- 
culiar virtues of their sex. Deborah seems to 
have united the sagacity and courage of man 
to the modest virtues of woman. She appears 
before us affecting no pomp, assuming no state. 
The wife of Lapidoth — one known only as the 
husband of Deborah, but thus known never to be 
forgotten — she abode with her husband in their 
own dwelling, under that palm-tree distin- 



THE INFLUENCE OF WOMAN. 173 

guished, when Samuel wrote this book, as " the 
palm of Deborah," between Raman, where 
Rachel died, and Bethel, where Jacob wor- 
shipped. "And all the children of Israel came 
up to her there for judgment." 

The people of Israel had departed from God 
and from the laws of Moses, and for twenty 
years they had been mightily oppressed by 
Jabin. During this long period no priest 
called the people to repentance, no prophet 
was commissioned to promise them relief. 

We may imagine Deborah dwelling among 
her people, a devout, strong-minded, enlight- 
ened woman. She saw their sins, she partici- 
pated in their trials, and she warned those 
around her of the evil of departing from 
Jehovah. She recalled His past acts of judg- 
ment and of mercy. She was well acquainted 
with the laws of Moses, and she recognised in the 



174 DEBORAH. 

punishment of the people the fulfilment of pro- 
phecy. 

The influence of such a woman — a "woman 

instructed in the religion of Jehovah — a wo- 

I 
man of faith and of prayer — would be felt, first, 

in her own family, or in her immediate circle of 
friends ; and then would commence the re- 
formation and the repentance and putting away 
of past sins and the return to the God of 
Israel. And as the influence spread, the circle 
extending, the whole nation would seem to 
have been affected, and they naturally resorted 
to one whose wisdom and piety were bo well 
established, when any questions of their law, 
either civil or religious, were to be settled. 
Thus the children of Israel came up to her 
for judgment. They came to her — for her feet 
abode within her own dwelling. Her influ- 
ence extended throughout all the borders of 
her land, but her presence still blest her own 



THE INFLUENCE OF WOMAN. 175 

house. The prophetess of Israel was still the 
wife of Lapidoth, and her only authority was 
that of piety, wisdom and love. A more beau- 
tiful instance of a woman's true, legitimate in- 
fluence cannot be given. Quietly, unostenta- 
tiously exercised, it penetrated through the 
nation and brought them back to Jehovah, 
and prepared the way for the removal of 
their yoke. 

For many years she was doubtless em- 
ployed in reclaiming and instructing her peo- 
ple. Through this influence the children of 
Israel were prepared to assert their liberty; 
and then Deborah was inspired to call upon 
" Barak the son of Abinoam," to gather an 
army, and take his station on Mount Tabor, 
where the Lord would deliver the enemies 
of Israel into his hands. She did not propose 
to attend — certainly not to lead — the army; 
but, giving her message, her counsel and her 



176 DEBORAH. 

prayers, would still abide under the palm- 
tree and remain with her husband. But the 
appointed general knew so well the value of 
her presence in inspiring the people with 
confidence, and felt so much the need of her 
prayers, that he refused to go unless she 
sanctioned the expedition with her attendance. 
"And Barak said unto her, If thou wilt go 
with me, I will go ; but if thou wilt not go with 
me, then I will not go." 

Thus appealed to, the answer was immediate : 
" I will surely go with thee ; notwithstanding 
the journey that thou takest shall not be for 
thine honour, for the Lord shall sell Sisera 
into the hands of a woman." 

Mount Tabor, chosen for the encamping- 
place of the army of Barak, still rises like a 
tall cone in the vast plain of Esdraelon, which, 
stretching across the land to the sea, has since 
been the battle-ground of nations. From the 



THE INFLUENCE OF WOMAN. 177 

wide plain on its lofty summit, Deborah and 
Barak could look over almost all the land. 
The view of the hills of Judea, of the sea of 
Tiberias, and of a country of wide extent, 
still repays the toil of those who climb to its 
summit. 

But since the days of Deborah and of 
Barak, Tabor is generally supposed to have 
witnessed another scene. The Man of grief, 
who bore our sins and took upon himself our 
sorrows, climbed its steep ascent with his 
favoured -disciples — And Moses and Elias 
appeared unto him there, and there "they 
talked with him." Of what ? Not of the battle 
of Deborah and Barak with Sisera — although 
they stood where the leaders of Israel had 
watched the hosts of their enemies encompass- 
ing them. It was a converse of high things, 
not meet for us to know. And there he was 
transfigured before his wondering disciples, 



178 DEBORAH. 

and his " raiment became exceeding white as 
snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them." 
And there was a cloud that overshadowed 
them, and a voice out of the cloud, This is 
my beloved Son — hear him. Alas ! the Divine 
command has been ill obeyed. Tabor yet 
retains the remains of a fortress and preserves 
the marks of warfare ; but no trace of the 
meeting there of the great lawgiver and re- 
former of Israel with Him who came both to 
fulfil and to abolish. No temples have yet 
been there erected to Him whose mission was 
far above all who were sent either to announce 
or prepare for his forthcoming. 

From Mount Tabor the leaders and hosts. 
of Israel watched their enemies gathering from 
afar and encompassing them. With the chariot* 
of iron, so much dreaded by the Israelites, 
came the archers, and the spearmen, and the 
multitude that were with them — all assembled 



THE INFLUENCE OF WOMAN. 179 

to surround and to destroy the allies of 
Barak. 

But when Deborah gave the signal, " Up ! 
for this is the day in the which the Lord hath 
delivered Sisera into thine hands : is not the 
Lord gone out before thee ?" Barak went from 
Mount Tabor with ten thousand men. The 
victory was complete — " Jehovah triumphed, 
His people were free." The hosts of the enemy 
were vanquished. The river Kishon, that an- 
cient river, swept them away. And the victory 
was celebrated by a song of most triumphant, 
yet grateful exultation, in a strain of the loftiest, 
purest poetry, such as the prophets and psalm- 
ists of Israel alone could pour forth : — 

Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel, 
When the people willingly offered themselves. 
Hear, O ye kings ! 
Give ear, O ye princes ! 
I, even I, will sing unto the Lord; 
I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel. 
Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, 
When thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, 
The earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, 



180 DEBORAH. 

The clouds also dropped water. 

The mountains melted from before the Lord, 

Even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel, 

In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, 
In the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, 
And the travellers walked through byways. 
The inhabitants of the villages ceased, 
They ceased in Israel, 
Until that I Deborah arose, 
That I arose a mother in Israel. 
They chose new gods ; 
Then was war in the gates : 
Was there a shield or spear seen 
Among forty thousand in Israel 1 

My heart is toward the governors of Israel, 
That offered themselves willingly among the people. 
Bless ye the Lord ! 
Speak, 

Ye that ride on white asses, 
Ye that sit in judgment, 
And walk by the way ! 

They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the 
place of drawing water. 
There shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord, 
Even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages 

in Israel : 
Then shall the people of the Lord go down to the gates. 
Awake, awake, Deborah! 
Awake, awake, utter a song ! 
Arise, Barak ! 

And lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam. 
Then he made him that remaineth have dominion over the 

-nobles among the people : 
The Lord made me have dominion over the mighty. 
Out of Ephraim was there a root of them again>t Amalek ; 
After thee, Benjamin, among thy people ; 
Out of Machir came down governors, 
And out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer. 
And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah ; 



THE INFLUENCE OF WOMAN. 181 



Even Issachar, and also Barak: 

He was sent on foot into the valley. 

For the divisions of Reuben 

There were great thoughts of heart. 

Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, 

To hear the bleatings of the flocks ] 

For the divisions of Reuben 

There were great searchings of heart. 

Gilead abode beyond Jordan : 

And why did Dan remain in ships 1 

Asher continued on the sea shore, 

And abode in his breaches. 

Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives 

Unto the death in the high places of the field. 

The kings came and fought, 
Then fought the kings of Canaan 
In Taanach by the waters of Megiddo ; 
They took no gain of money. 
They fought from heaven; 

The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. 
The river Kishon swept them away, 
That ancient river, the river Kishon. 
O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength. 
Then were the horsehoofs broken 

By the means of the prancings, the prancings of their mighty 
ones. 

Curse ye Meroz ! said the angel of the Lord, 
Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; 
Because they came not to the help of the Lord, 
To the help of the Lord against the mighty. 

Blessed above women 
Shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, 
Blessed shall she be above women in the tent ! 
He asked water, and she gave him milk ; 
She brought forth butter in a lordly dish. 
She put her hand to the nail, 
And her right hand to the workmen's hammer ; 
And with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his 
head, 

16 



182 DEBORAH. 

When she had pierced and stricken through his temples. 

At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down : 

At her feet he bowed, he fell : 

Where he bowed, there he fell down dead. 

The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, 
And cried through the lattice, 
Why is his chariot so long in coming? 
Why tarry the wheels of his chariots ? 
Her wise ladies answered her, 
Yea, she returned answer to herself, 
Have they not sped 1 have they not divided the prey ; 
To every man a damsel or two; 
To Sisera a prey of divers colors, 
A prey of divers colors of needlework on both sides, 
Meet for the necks of them that take the spoil ? 
So let all thine enemies perish, Lord ! 
But let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth 
in his might. 

One such strain preserved from any other 
ancient nation would establish their claims 
to the highest order of poetic genius, and 
lead to the most industrious and painful 
research for all that could throw light upon 
their literature. It comes over the soul now 
like the full burst of martial music. It stirs 
the blood and quickens the pulses with its 
strain of triumph, while it melts us to pity, as 
it brings before us so graphically, with such 



THE INFLUENCE OF WOMAN. 183 

exquisite power — yet such slight allusion — the 
distress and desolation of Israel. It is a 
finished picture of the age. We see the 
judges, those that ride on white asses (still 
reserved for royal stables) that walk by the 
way; while it gives us a full character of 
Sisera and the mother who trained him. 
We see the mother — haughty, proud, avarici- 
ous, surrounded by " her wise ladies," who 
are flatterers rather than counsellors — ready to 
exult in the rapine and plunder of the army of 
her son ; her natural fears awakened by his 
delayed return, yet hushed and soothed by the 
enumeration of the spoil. No feeling of pity 
softening the love of vengeance, — the desire for 
the plunder of a conquered people engrossing alL 
And in Sisera we see the proud, cruel, 
licentious spoiler — all the powers of his evil 
nature called into exercise by success and the 
long indulgence of every evil passion and gross 



184 DEBORAH. 

appetite — arrogant, oppressive and cruel in 
success; abject, cowardly and overreaching 
in adversity. We can well imagine the state 
of an oppressed people ruled by such a man at 
the head of a licentious soldiery. And harsh 
as may seem some of the expressions of 
Deborah, in her joyous outbursts of praise and 
thanksgiving, they arise from the ineffable 
miseries, the deep degradation, the oppressive 
cruelties, to which all the daughters of Israel 
would have been exposed had he been triumph- 
ant ; and a mother in Israel might well exult in a 
deliverance from one whose desolating track 
was marked by lust and carnage. 

"We do not love to dwell on the treachery of 
Jael — we do not feel called upon to justify 
the act, although Deborah might well rejoice 
in the deliverance of her people from so stern 
a foe, so foul an oppression. Sisera appears 
as abject in the hour of defeat as he had 



THE INFLUENCE OF WOMAN. 185 

been insolent and arrogant and cruel in the 
hour of triumph. 

After Israel was restored to liberty we hear 
no more of Deborah ; but " the land had 
rest forty years." She again returns to her 
own sphere, to the unostentatious, yet all- 
pervading usefulness of domestic life. No 
honours, no triumphs, no statues were awarded 
to her. No monuments seem to have been 
erected to her memory. The palm-tree was 
her fitting memorial; delighting the eye, af- 
fording shade, shelter and Dourishment; ask- 
ing and securing nought from man, watered by 
the dew and rain of heaven, and rejoicing in 
the beams of the sun — still pointing to heaven 
while sheltering those beneath it. 

Jehovah seems to permit such examples to 
stimulate woman to usefulness and to vindicate 
their capacity ; and thus there ever have been 
and are still Deborahs — mothers in Israel — 



186 DEBORAH. 

those who, dwelling under their own roof, in 
the seclusion of domestic life, yet send forth 
an influence which extends far and wide. 

The sound, rational piety of such women, 
and their lives of humble faith, of prayer, and 
of consistent usefulness, have often awakened 
a high tone of religious feeling and led to 
extensive revivals of pure religion. 

Without departing from their allotted sphere, 
without forgetting the delicacy and proprieties 
demanded from their sex, they have been 
greatly instrumental in elevating the moral 
and religious standard of a community by their 
faithfulness in reproving the erring and re- 
claiming the backsliding, while by their kindly 
sympathy and effectual co-operation, they have 
aided, encouraged, and, by their prudent, ju- 
dicious counsel, guided — the appointed leaders 
of Israel. 



JEZEBEL. 




•»£& LTHOUGH the fa- 

mily of Jeroboam were 
soon swept from the 
throne of Israel, yet 
those who succeeded 
still pursued the policy 
by which he had been governed ; and through 
all the contention and bloodshed which marked 
the reigns of different dynasties, they all per- 
sisted in the idolatry established by him. 
" They all did evil in the sight of the Lord, 
and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his 
sin, wherewith he made Israel to sin." But of 
Ahab, the son of Omri, it is written that "he 

187 



188 



JEZEBEL. 



did more to provoke the God of Israel than all 
that were before him." He pursued the path 
which had been marked out by his predecessors 
when he married, and he found in his wife an 
efficient aid. By the strength of her mind, by 
the energy of her character, by the introduction 
of an idolatry at once more corrupt and more 
ensnaring, she did more to complete and seal 
the apostasy of Israel than all who had gone 
before her. 

The name of Jezebel has descended to us as 
one of the most opprobrious epithets which can 
be applied to a woman. Little did the haughty 
queen who bore it imagine what a reproach and 
offence it was to become for future ages, in 
unknown lands, and among unborn nations. 

We think of her always as old, withered, 
thirsting for blood, and incapable of the finer 
sentiments and all the softer emotions of human 
kind. There was a time in which she shone as 



JEZEBEL. 



189 



the centre of a splendid and luxurious court, 
where minstrels sang to her and poets praised 
her and princes flattered her, while statesmen 
confessed her influence and cabinets adopted 
her plans. Fascinating, artful, able, ambitious, 
and unprincipled, she may be regarded as chief 
among many of the most celebrated of this 
class of her sex of ancient or modern days. 

There have been queens, not of heathen 
lands and barbarous Asia, but of refined and 
christianized Europe, upon whose memories rest 
quite as dark shadows as those which cover the 
character of the Queen of Israel. It is sad to 
remember how many of the most atrocious acts 
which disgrace the annals of our race are to be 
traced to the influence of female ambition, 
jealousy, hate, or revenge. Larger possessions 
than that of the vineyard of Naboth have been 
obtained by perjury and blood; and few modern 
courts could consistently condemn the princi- 



190 JEZEBEL. 

pies or the policy by "which the monarchs of 
Israel attempted to consolidate and perpetuate 
their dominion. In the estimation of many 
statesmen and many historians, greatness has 
sanctified all the means by which power is 
either to be attained or preserved, and the 
splendour of the court has fully atoned for all 
the oppression of the people. 

While she was fitted to co-operate with her 
husband, and ready to promote his designs and 
to embrace the policy which had guided the 
court of Israel, she soon assumed and ever 
maintained that influence which the stronger 
mind, the more powerful will, ever exerts over 
the inferior and weaker. Through all his reign, 
Ahab ever deferred to her ; and while she 
goaded him onward in his career of crime, she 
stimulated and upheld him by her daring de- 
fiance of the commands and threatenings of 
the prophets of the Lord. She possessed all 



JEZEBEL. 191 

the energy, power, and constancy which ever 
belongs to minds of a high order, and which 
fit them for greatness in virtue or crime — in- 
suring widespread usefulness or leading to 
desperate wickedness. She never was turned 
from her course. She never faltered, trembled, 
or hesitated in the pursuit of her object. She 
witnessed, unawed and unmoved, miracles of 
judgment and of mercy. She saw unpitying a 
land consumed by drought and a people perish- 
ing by famine ; and when the parched earth 
drank the showers of heaven, while she rejoiced, 
she was neither softened nor made penitent by 
the blessing. 

Ahab could not entirely divest himself of 
every national characteristic, or the remem- 
brances and associations of his faith and his 
people. There still clung to him some remains 
of the fear of the "Lord God of his fathers," 
some feelings of reverence and awe for the 



192 JEZEBEL. 

name and worship of Jehovah. No such com- 
punctions troubled Jezebel. When Elijah visited 
Ahab, the impious monarch quailed before him 
and trembled at the denunciation of Divine 
wrath. Jezebel answered his reproofs by scorn 
and threats, and her menaces drove the prophet 
from the altar where he had triumphed. 

Yet her history is replete with sad inte- 
rest. While it declares the certain ruin which 
follows national sins and national corruption, 
it displays also much of the wonderful for- 
bearance of Jehovah. As we retrace his 
dealings even with the guilty house of Ahab 
and the apostate people of Israel, we are re- 
minded of One who, ages after, wept over 
Jerusalem. " Oh, if thou hadst known, in this 
thy day, the things which belong to thy peace 
— but now they are hidden from thine eyes." 

During the earlier years of the reign of Ahab, 
while Jezebel was engaged with all zeal and ac- 



JEZEBEL. 193 

tivity in proselyting the people of Israel to the 
worship of Ashtaroth and Baal, she was constantly 
resisted by the prophets sent as messengers from 
Jehovah. And many miracles of mercy and of 
judgment, wrought before her by the power of 
the Lord God of Israel, should have convinced 
her of the truth of His messengers — His indis- 
putable claim to be the God — the Lord God. 
She resisted all — not from the want of evidence 
or the power of believing, but from the per- 
verseness of a determined will and a hardened 
heart. Yet he who styles himself a God mer- 
ciful and gracious, long strove with her, though 
at last she provoked him to depart and leave 
her to her chosen way. 

The seizure of the vineyard of Naboth 
seems to have consummated the iniquity of 
Jezebel, while it brought all the distinguishing 
traits of her character into full light. 

Judah was a land of rocky hills and narrow 



194 JEZEBEL. 

though fertile valleys. The possessions of Is- 
rael were broader and more luxuriant ; and in 
the beautiful plain of Jezreel the kings of Israel 
had built their favourite city of Samaria. In 
that city, Ahab erected the temple consecrated 
to Baal, and there he maintained four hundred 
and fifty priests for his service, while the Queen 
of Israel kept four hundred in the groves con- 
secrated to Ashtaroth. " But the vineyard of 
Naboth the Jezreelite was hard by the palace 
of Ahab, King of Samaria." 

The King of Israel desired the vineyard of 
Naboth, either to enlarge his grounds or to add 
to their beauty and variety. Yet, despotic and 
unprincipled as he was, the laws of possession 
were so fixed, the rights of property so esta- 
blished, that, on the refusal of Naboth to sell his 
inheritance, he dared not use violence ; and he 
sank into sullen despondency. 

It has ever been characteristic of wives like 



JEZEBEL. 195 

Jezebel to maintain their ascendency by arts 
and blandishments, and by ministering to every 
corrupt propensity of their husbands. With 
the watchfulness of a devoted wife, she saw the 
vexation of her husband. 

"Why is thy countenance so sad?" 

"And he said unto her, Because I spake 
unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, 
Give me thy vineyard for money ; or else, if it 
please thee, I will give thee another vineyard 
for that." 

Naboth had said, God forbid that I should 
give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. 

The faithful Israelite may have recoiled from 
the thought of its passing into the hands of the 
unholy worshippers of Baal and Ashtaroth and 
being polluted by their orgies. But Ahab did 
not give the denial in its full force. He repre- 
sents Naboth as simply refusing. " I will not 
give thee my vineyard." 



196 JEZEBEL. 

We seem to see the actors before us, in the 
spirited, yet simple narration, as it proceeds. 
Ahab, heavy, sullen, morose — with clouded brow 
and furrowed cheek. Jezebel, with her flashing 
eye, her queenly gait, her haughty aspect, and 
all the workings of pride and craft and ambi- 
tion expressed in her faded but still striking 
features. With what utter contempt would she 
look upon the husband who sank into despond- 
ency because he had not the skill to devise, 
or the will to perpetrate, the iniquity which 
would insure the attainment of his desires ! 

" Dost thou govern Israel? Arise, and eat 
bread, and let thine heart be merry. I will 
give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreel- 
ite." 

And a darker plot, or one more artfully de- 
vised, has seldom been unravelled among all the 
iniquitous intrigues of courts and statesmen. 
Naboth was doubtless a true worshipper: and 



JEZEBEL. 197 

for once Jezebel professed all honour to the 
laws of Jehovah. He was arraigned and 
tried by the laws of Moses — long trampled 
upon and disused. And all the solemnities of 
religion were resorted to, to aid her plans and 
advance her purpose. 

Falsely arraigned, accused, and condemned, 
Naboth was executed, and his sons perished with 
him. The hands of his brethren were imbrued 
in their blood. She who managed the plot 
found other agents to execute her designs. 
With impious hypocrisy, she insulted heaven by 
ordaining a solemn fast, for God and the king 
had been blasphemed. These transactions 
display the deep depravity of the Queen of 
Israel, while they show the influence of her 
character and example upon her people. The 
very ministers of justice were made the abettors 
of her guilt ; and law, with all its formalities 
and solemnities, was made to sanction crime. 



198 JEZEBEL. 

How many sins were committed to gratify 
one idle, covetous desire ! God was insulted 
and defied and blasphemed ; justice was cor- 
rupted ; and falsehood, perjury, and murder 
were all used to accomplish the wicked will of 
Jezebel. And how many victims have been thus 
arraigned, and perished thus, in later days ! 
This deed awoke the vengeance of Jehovah. 
Even as Ahab took possession of his blood- 
stained field, the prophet of the Lord met him 
and denounced the doom of the perpetrators of 
the dark crime. All were to perish, and all 
were to die deaths of blood and shame. Hus- 
band, wife, parents, and children — all, to the 
latest generation, were to be cut off — to be 
rooted out of the earth as an abominable stock, 
and to rot in the sight of the heavens. Ahab 
humbled himself, as he received the message of 
the prophet, and showed an outward reverence ; 
and his doom was so far softened that the de- 



JEZEBEL. 199 

struction of the family was not immediate : but 
Jezebel seems still as bold and unmoved as ever. 
Jehoshaphat, the King of Israel, entered into 
alliance with Ahab, and visited his court to 
witness the splendour and share the hospitalities 
of Jezebel ; and while both were warring against 
Syria, Ahab was slain in battle. 

Jezebel doubtless would have scouted the folly 
of those who saw the fulfilment of both prophecy 
and sentence in the dogs licking the blood from 
the chariot and the armour, as they were washed 
in the pool, which probably was on the lands of 
Naboth ; yet she might have foreseen thus her 
certain fate — and as Ahab had died, so she 
should die. Her doom was yet deferred. She 
long survived her husband, and prosperity and 
such honours as attend the prosperous were her '8. 
She was the daughter, wife, and the mother of 
kings. Her sons ruled Israel. Her daughter sat 
on the throne of Judah. She dwelt in royal 



200 JEZEBEL. 

state at Jezreel, and enjoyed possessions which 
had been obtained by revolting crimes. Ahab 
had died a bloody death. Jehoshaphat was ga- 
thered to his fathers ; the King of Syria perish- 
ed by the hands of his servant; and Elijah was 
taken up to heaven — but Jezebel still lived. 

What were the occupations of her old age ? 
Was she still busy, restless, and intriguing ? Or 
did the past haunt her with dark remembrances 
of shame and crime, and the avenging future 
cast its shadow over her soul ? Did the stern 
decree of the prophet ring in her ears, and late 
remorse drive her to the dark cruelties of her 
bloody idolatry, in the idle hope of expiation ? 
Such an old age could not have been happy. 
She was left to fill up the measure of her ini- 
quity, while memory told of past sins, and con- 
science whispered of the coming retribution, 
and the avenging justice of heaven hung like a 
dark cloud over her guilty house. Past the 



JEZEBEL. 201 

season of pleasure, deprived of the power she 
had so abused, without the honour and sacred 
reverence due to virtuous age, she may have 
had a foretaste of her future retribution, though 
surrounded by all the splendour of royalty, 
with trembling and abject slaves ministering to 
all her wants. 

One son after another quietly took possession 
of the throne of Israel, and Jezebel may have 
derided the prophecy of Elijah ; yet the sen- 
tence, long delayed, was fully executed. The 
hour of foretold vengeance arrived. In one 
day, the King of Israel was dethroned and 
murdered, and the race of Ahab was swept 
from the face of the earth. 'The last act of 
her life was worthy of Jezebel herself, — of 
the Queen of Israel in the days of her prime. 
She heard of the death of Jehoram and of the 
insurrection of Jehu. Neither the timidity of a 
woman nor the yearnings of a mother had a 



202 JEZEBEL. 

place in her soul. In the hour of carnage, 
surrounded by all the horrors of death, the 
pride of her nature prevailed, and all the daring 
of her character was displayed. She forgot 
neither the proprieties due to her rank nor the 
embellishments needful for her person. With 
the vanity of the woman and the pride of a 
queen, "she painted her face and tired her 
head," and then haughtily presenting herself 
before the murderer of her children, she uttered 
a maddening taunt and defiance. By the hands 
of her servants she was cast from the windows of 
the palace of Israel into the very grounds which 
had been the vineyard of Naboth ; and as she 
was dashed to the earth, the wheels of the 
chariot of the destroyer of her race passed over 
her, and the feet of the horses trampled upon 
her. " And the dogs ate Jezebel by the walls 
of Jezreel." Thus her doom was accomplished ! 
There have been many like her. Her crimes 



JEZEBEL. 203 

have been sometimes equalled in atrocity. 
Her ruling passions were pride and ambition ; 
and she doubtless clung to the idols of her 
land from the unbounded license their worship 
gave to sensuality, and the opportunities it af- 
forded, in its feasts and festivals, for display 
and gayety. 

But she clung more tenaciously to her idol- 
atry from motives of self-interest and national 
aggrandizement. It was the test of loyalty 
for Israel. It was in perfect consistency with 
such a character to turn away from all evi- 
dence and to reject what she did not wish to 
believe. In the expressive language of the Bi- 
ble, she "hardened her heart;" and doubtless, 
like skeptics of later days, she could ascribe 
what she could not disprove to the work- 
ing of natural causes, or to the arts of 
priestcraft. 

We can all stifle the convictions of conscience 



204 



JEZEBEL. 



and contemn the principles winch conflict with 
our interest or our inclination; and there are 
in every station unconscious imitators of the 
Queen of Israel. 




ATHALIAH. 




HE pious king of Ju- 
dah not only formed a 
political alliance with 



^_A^^ Israel but he even per- 
mitted, and probably 
encouraged his son, and 
the heir to his throne, to marry the daughter 
of the impious Ahab and the idolatrous Jezebel, 
Jehoshaphat saw not the Queen of Israel as we 
see her — as unlovely as she was unholy. 
Dazzled by the splendour of her court, won by 
her grace and queenly bearing, he may have 
overlooked her crimes. The most unprincipled 
have sometimes carefully and successfully cul- 



206 AT HAL I AH. 

tivated much that gives grace and attraction to 
social life. Some, whose hearts have been 
utterly selfish and callous, and whose lives have 
been one dark record of crime and cruelty, 
have yet shone as the centres of splendid cir- 
cles, diffusing all around them pleasure and 
gayety. And men, themselves unstained, have 
been won by these fascinations to a close asso- 
ciation with those whose principles were worthy 
only of reprobation, and whose association should 
have been shunned as in the last degree con- 
taminating. 

The intimacies between those who love and 
worship God and those who reject him are 
ever full of danger. And while the courtiers 
of Ahab and the flatterers of Jehoshaphat may 
have applauded the liberal policy of the King 
of Judah, and his freedom from the bigotry of 
the prophets who would reform Israel, he was 
pursuing a course which was to involve his 



ATHALIAH. 207 

family in calamity and bring corruption into 
his kingdom. Jerusalem and Samaria were 
not very remote from each other, and the kings 
of Israel and Judah seem at this period to have 
maintained frequent personal intercourse : an 
intercourse which appears not to have elevated 
the moral character of Israel, while it surely led 
to the deterioration of the piety of Judah; for 
when godly persons mingle freely with the im- 
pious, — especially if this intercourse originates 
from mere motives of ambition or worldly ex- 
pediency, — the former will be much more ready 
to sink to the level of the worldling than to 
raise the worldling to their own. 

The influence of this association with the 
depraved court of Israel doubtless had its effect 
upon the heart of Jehoshaphat. He was not 
drawn into idolatry, but he probably was less 
zealous in the service of Jehovah and in the vin- 
dication of his ways. He may have rather sym- 



208 ATHALIAH. 

pathized with the monarchs of Israel in their at- 
tempts to establish their own faith and main- 
tain their own authority, than with the perse- 
cuted people of Israel in their efforts to pr« 
the worship of their fathers. While he regret toil 
the idolatry of Jezebel, he may have censured 
what would be called the uncourtly intolerance 
or the bigoted zeal of the prophets, who uttered 
such denunciations and threatenings against 
the reigning family. Perhaps he pointed out 
to the few faithful Israelites whom he might meet 
in the train of Ahab or at the court of Israel the 
propriety of a more gentle mode or a more con- 
ciliating policy. As the friend of Ahab, he 
betrayed the cause of God, and upheld his 
iniquities. In all the persecutions they sus- 
tained, we do not find that the prophets of the 
Lord ever sought a refuge among their brethren 
of Judah. Hardly could they have expected 
shelter and protection from the king who was 



ATHALIAH. 209 

allying his own family with the house of Ahab. 
They found shelter among the heathen ; they 
were nourished by miracles ; they were hid in 
the coverts of the rocks, and were fed by 
ravens, while Jehoshaphat and his court were 
rejoicing in the alliance of Jehoram with 
Athaliah — the royal son of Judah with the 
royal daughter of Israel ; and the worshippers 
of Jehovah and the devotees of Ashtaroth and 
Baal were mingled in their train. 

There might have been heavy forebodings 
and low, suppressed murmurs among those who 
remembered the statutes of the Lord, and who 
recalled his dealings with his people ; but the 
multitude could rejoice in the splendour and the 
festivities of the occasion ; the court could exult 
in the pomp and display ; and wise politicians 
could talk of the benefits to the two countries 
of speaking one language, springing from a* 
common origin, and preserving their own 



210 ATHALIAH. 

national integrity, and yet presenting one 
united front to the common enemy. And 
Jehoshaphat may have hailed this marriage as 
the master-stroke of his policy, while religiously- 
disposed courtiers whispered that a scion of 
Israel, transplanted to Judah and nurtured by 
Jehoshaphat, under the influences of Zion, must 
indeed prove a plant of righteousness in this 
garden of the Lord. 

Did Jezebel fear this? Did this strong- 
minded, politic, crafty woman feel that her 
daughter was placed under influences which 
might draw her from the idols of her mother, 
and make her recreant to the policy of her 
father's house ? 

Jezebel was too strong in the consciousness 
of her own power, to fear that her children 
would oppose her wishes or her plans. All 
experience proves that the wife exerts a power- 
ful influence upon the character of her husband. 



ATHALIAH. 211 

Even where she has apparently little mental 
strength, she may possess great moral power, 
for evil or for good. This influence pervades 
her family, and is felt even while it is despised 
and disavowed. When holy and pure, it is as 
reviving, strengthening, invigorating as the 
pure breath of the morning. When it has its 
source in a selfish, polluted heart, it comes like 
the midnight miasma or the blast of the desert, 
prostrating and destroying all over which it 
passes. 

The character of the mother often determines 
the course and the destiny of her children. 
She imprints her own moral lineaments upon 
her offspring. She moulds their habits and 
she transfuses into them the feelings, motives, 
and principles which actuate herself. The 
influence of the mother is often so perpetuated 
in her daughters that the individual seems 
multiplied as she is faithfully reflected by them. 



212 ATHALIAH. 

Where the mental and moral characteristics 
are marked, they are almost sure to descend; 
and the character of Jezebel was one to leave 
its impress. 

Thus we find Athaliah worthy of the stock 
from which she sprang. She was the true, as 
she seems to be the only daughter of Jezebel. 
Though early allied to Jehoshaphat and removed 
into the kingdom of Judah, she retained all 
the idolatrous prepossessions of her father's 
house, and she exhibited all the traits which 
marked her race. She possessed the qualities 
which had been so prominently displayed by 
the course and life of Jezebel. The same des- 
perate will, the same determined energy, the 
same daring courage and dauntless resolution, 
and the same proud ambition; and she was 
even more devoid than her mother of all the 
kinder feelings, affections, and sympathies. 

Jezebel had resolutely crushed all those af- 



ATHALIAH. 213 

fections and sympathies of her nature which 
would be likely to check her progress in her 
career of crime and power. She had trampled 
upon all that would obstruct her in the attain- 
ment of her object. Yet some of the feelings 
of the woman, the tenderness of the wife, the 
fondness of the mother, still seem to linger in 
her proud heart. Unprincipled as she was, 
she did not abandon herself to utter selfishness. 
In her most atrocious acts she seems to have 
had some regard to the aggrandizement of her 
family and to the gratification of her husband. 
The daughter was more depraved than her 
mother. Athaliah was utterly selfish, devoid 
even of the instinct of natural affection. A 
character more revolting is not presented to us 
in the pages of the historian, sacred or profane. 
A woman rioting in blood that she might 
gratify her ambition ! A mother destroying 
her offspring that she might possess their 



214 ATHALIAH. 

inheritance ! Jezebel was a depraved woman, 
but Athaliah was a monster — a woman destitute 
of all the feelings of humanity, working all 
evil, and only evil, from the mere love of self. 
With selfish desires which absorbed all con- 
sideration, and in their intensity prompted to 
unnatural crimes, having no object in view be- 
yond her personal gratification or aggrandize- 
ment, there was not even the extenuation to be 
offered for Athaliah which could be urged fur 
Jezebel ; for the policy of Judea was opposed to 
idolatry, and in the family of Jehoshaphat si it- 
was surrounded by influences most favourable 
to a virtuous course, and influences which had 
never rested upon her mother. Under the 
very shadow of the Temple she perpetrated her 
most flagrant crimes. 

Although the depravity of Jezebel led her to 
adopt a corrupt religion, to reject a pore and 
holy worship, and to cling to the dark and cruel 



ATHALIAH. 215 

rites of heathenism, the voice of conscience was 
not silenced, the light of the soul was not en- 
tirely extinguished. She felt the need of some 
faith — she clung to the altars of her gods. But 
Athaliah seems to have sunk into the brutishness 
of those who own "no God." She seems to have 
trampled upon all faith, as she violated all obliga- 
tion — insensible alike to the calls of conscience 
and the aspirations of devotion. She had no wo- 
manly sympathies. She had high mental endow- 
ments — she had a powerful will and strong pas- 
sions — but she had no affections. There have 
been many Jezebels — but few Athaliahs. The 
affections compose so large a part of a woman's 
nature that we disown one who is without them. 
In her deepest guilt, in her lowest debasement, 
they still cling to her ; and raised to the summit 
of power, they do not often wholly desert her. 
The princess of Israel must have been mar- 
ried at an early age, and she was long restrained 



216 ATHALIAH. 

by the character of Jehoshaphat from the pub- 
lic display of her wishes and inclinations. 
While he lived, Judah still retained the out- 
ward show of reverence for the God of Israel, 
and doubtless Athaliah often led her train to 
the temple of Jehovah; yet the infection of 
the character and principles of the daughter 
of Ahab was at work. A poisonous leaven 
spread through the royal family. The younger 
princes of Judah were contaminated ; and when 
Jehoshaphat died, this influence of Athaliah 
was first manifest in the character of Jehoram. 
It is written of him that " he walked in the 
ways of the kings of Israel, after the house of 
Ahab, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife, 
and he did evil in the sight of the Lord." 

He commenced his reign by the murder of 
his brethren, the sons of his father. Jehosha- 
phat had provided for all his sons, giving them 
wealth and appointing them to offices of trust, 



ATHALIAH. 217 

while he left the kingdom to Jehoram. And 
without pretext or apology, Jehoram put them 
all to death ; and their families were involved, 
as we may well believe, in their ruin. They 
were probably proclaimed outlaws, and then 
murdered wherever found, perhaps while dwell- 
ing in perfect security and in profound peace ; 
and with them fell many of the other princes 
of Judah not so nearly connected with the 
royal family. The very commencement of his 
reign, the occasion of so much joyful festivity 
to the court, was thus marked by crimes which 
brought utter desolation to the families and 
terror to the hearts of the people of his king- 
dom ; and we may well presume that the woman 
who afterwards proved herself so reckless and 
heaven-defying, prompted to this first crime. 
She who was herself so ready to commit deeds 
of blood would be quick to instigate others. 
The whole reign of Jehoram was impious 



218 ATHALIAH. 

and disgraceful. He erected altars on all the 
hills of Judea, to draw his people into the wor- 
ship of Baal and Ashtaroth ; while he compelled 
the inhabitants of Jerusalem to join in the 
corrupt festivals and the abominable rites of 
this Syrian goddess. 

Elijah, the prophet of Israel, was commis- 
sioned to reprove Jehoram, and to denounce 
the impending doom of his house. He was 
not ordered to present himself at the court 
of the King of Judah, but to write his message. 
u There came a writing to Jehoram ;" and pro- 
bably the King of Judah scoffed at the warning, 
and perhaps referred him to the unexecuted 
judgments denounced upon the house of Ahab, 
and to the present prosperity of the family, and 
the continued stability of the kingdom, as a 
proof of the fanatical delusion of the pretended 
prophets of the Lord. Yet the doom of the 
guilty Jehoram was accomplished even before 



ATHALIAH. 219 

the woes denounced upon Jezebel were fulfilled. 
Tributary kingdoms revolted, and in vain he 
sought to bring them back to obedience. The 
Philistines and the Arabians made an incursion 
into Judah, and carried away all his wealth, 
while they took his family captive ; and Jeho- 
ram, smitten by a most loathsome and painful 
disease, died. He was buried without the 
usual honours paid to royalty. His memory 
and his person were alike offensive. 

Upon the accession of Ahaziah, the next 
king, the influence of Athaliah is soon recog- 
nised. He was the youngest and the only son 
not carried into captivity. It is said that " his 
mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of 
Omri. He also walked in the way of the 
house of Ahab, for his mother was his coun- 
sellor to do wickedly," — as wife and mother, 
alike unholy. " Wherefore he did evil in the 
of the Lord, like the house of Ahab, 



220 ATHALIAH. 

for they were his counsellors, after the death 
of his father, to his destruction." 

The second son of Ahab had succeeded to 
the kingdom of Israel, and Jezebel was sur- 
rounded by all the splendours of royalty. 
Peace and prosperity still attended her family. 
The death of Naboth and his sons, and the 
denunciations of the prophet, were probably 
forgotten, or remembered only to be despised. 
The royal houses, so closely allied, maintained 
a familiar intercourse, and the King of Judah 
was on a visit of sympathy to the King of 
Israel, who was sick and wounded, when the 
rebellion of Jehu broke out. It came upon 
the house of Ahab like a hurricane : in the 
midst of security and of apparently profound 
peace, the storm swept over and destroyed them. 

While the kings were in the palace of Israel, 
the rapid approach of a messenger awoke the 
curiosity rather than the apprehension of the 



ATHALIAH. 221 

King of Israel. With the rashness of a doomed 
man, he rushed upon his own destruction. As 
the messengers, whom he had sent to meet the 
approaching foes, returned not, the two kings 
hastened to meet the advancing troop. And 
they met Jehu by the vineyard of Naboth, and 
there the King of Israel was slain, while the 
King of Judah fled, mortally wounded, to 
Megiddo, where he died. All that belonged to 
the house of Ahab in Israel perished in this 
hour of vengeance and righteous retribution. 
Jehu murdered those of the descendants of 
Jehoram who fell in his way; and Athaliah 
hastened to complete the fulfilment of the 
prophetic doom of her house by herself insti- 
gating the murder of all who remained of the 
royal family of Judah, although they were her 
own descendants ! In her ruthless ambition she 
destroyed her grandchildren, that she might 
herself ascend the throne of Judah. She 



222 ATHALIAH. 

seems to have exulted in the blood and carnage 
which opened her way to royal power. Un- 
moved by the fate of her mother, with her sons 
and her brothers scarce cold in their untimely 
graves, by her cruel treachery she consummated 
the destruction of her family; and, stained 
with blood and polluted by crimes, she seated 
herself upon the throne of David, and usurped 
the inheritance of her children ! 

For eight years Athaliah held this usurped po- 
sition. No compunctious visitings of conscience 
seem to have haunted her. She felt neither 
pity nor remorse. She may have well sustained 
her ill-gotten power while she resided amidst 
the pomp and pageantry of royalty. Her reso- 
lute despotism seems to have held her subjects 
in awe, and to have quelled them all into sub- 
jection. She had herself wrought the fulfil- 
ment of the doom of her race. As the last of 
Ahab's children, the sword of divine vengeance 



ATHALIAH. 223 

was suspended over her head, and in the time 
appointed it fell. She was to die the death of 
her house — a death of blood. 

When the kings of Judah apostatized, while the 
individuals were punished, the race was spared. 
God still remembered his covenant with David ; 
and, amid all the sin and desolation of Judah, 
the line of hereditary descent was unbroken. 
The root remained, and some scion worthy of 
the stock sprang from it. 

When Athaliah was ingrafted on the stock 
of royal Judah, she so debased it, that it seemed 
needful to purify it by cutting off all the bran- 
ches to the very root. Yet one was saved. 
And, as if to display his own power and grace, 
God is at times pleased to select from the 
families the most apostate and unholy, the 
instrument of his work and the trophy of 
his grace. So he made the daughter of Atha- 
liah the nurse and the instructress of him who 



224 ATHALIAH. 

was to reform the kingdom of Judah. Jeho- 
shabeath, wife of the high-priest of the Lord, 
seems to have escaped the character and the 
doom of her family. Her's was a task most diffi- 
cult. She was called to oppose the depravity of 
her mother and to thwart her bloody policy, and 
yet not to appear as her accuser and as hast- 
ening the execution of the Divine vengeance. 
Hard is it to the virtuous child to reprobate 
the character and course of the unholy parent, 
and yet preserve the reverence due to the re- 
lation. Jehoshabeath appears before us in ■ 
light which leaves a most favourable impression. 
The saviour of the infant heir of Judah, the 
son of her brother, she cherished, instructed 
and guarded him. At the proper time the 
high-priest communicated the secret of the ex- 
istence of the child to the princes of the land, 
and the son of Ahaziah was proclaimed king. 
No assault was made upon Athaliah. She 



ATHALIAH. 225 

rushed, like others of her family, upon her doom, 
as if she were infatuated. The tumult of the 
people, the triumphant strains of sacred and 
martial music, the clashing of the shields of the 
soldiers as they bore their king aloft, brought 
the first tidings of the existence of the last of 
her race to Athaliah. 

The daughter of Jezebel was not easily daunt- 
ed. Her courage rose in the hour of danger. 
She had purchased the throne at a price too great 
readily to relinquish the possession of it. She 
forced her way through the crowds who surround- 
ed the Temple, and through the bands of soldiers 
who guarded the young king, until she confront- 
ed the child whose brow already bore the crown 
of Judah — a heavy weight for the infant king. 
In vain she rent her royal robes, and in vain 
she cried, " Treason ! Treason !" None ad- 
hered to her — none followed her — none perish- 
ed with her. She died by the sword, 



226 ATHALI^n. 

"And left a name to other times 
Link'd with no virtue, but a thousand crimes." 

The history of modern nations is not without 
examples of similar evils entailed upon those 
who, professing themselves the heads of a 
purified church and a reformed faith, choose 
(from motives of pride or policy) to seek an 
alliance with the adherents of a dark, cruel, and 
persecuting superstition. Such a marriage 
precipitated the Stuarts from the throne of 
England, cost one king his life, and the family 
a kingdom ; and the marriages of policy among 
princes, contravening the rules of God's word, 
are often followed by most disastrous results, 
and hasten the evils they are contracted to 
prevent. 

In private life, also, the marriage of those 
who have renounced this world for a higher 
portion, with the worldly and the ungodly, is 
generally a source of sin or of sorrow. There 



ATHALIAH. 227 

can be little congenial feeling between the 
spiritual and the earthly; and the servant of 
God who chooses a wife from the daughters of 
sin and the devotees of pleasure, places him- 
self in a position of peculiar trial. 

The spirit of the wife pervades the household. 
The husband may rule, but the wife influences. 
His voice is obeyed, but the wishes of the wife 
are consulted. Her friends are the welcome 
guests. His associates gather around his 
board and claim his leisure hour, but her voice 
whispers to him in his retirement. She comes be- 
tween God and his soul. The strongest of men 
was shorn of his might by the companion of his 
bosom ; the wisest was led into foolishness and 
idolatry by the influence of a corrupt woman. 

We are prone to think of the period to which 
we have been referring as one of barbarism, 
and of the nations of Israel and Judah as 
ignorant and uncivilized. Does it not seem as 



228 ATHALIAH. 

if the very heavens must have been shrouded 
and the course of nature changed during the 
perpetration of such bloody crimes ? Does it 
not seem as if a natural darkness must have 
overspread the land ? And yet it was not so. 
The sun shone in his brightness, the skies were 
as serene, the rain and the dew descended, the 
vine and the olive ripened, and the flowers shed 
forth their sweetness, and all the bustle and 
show of life went on, as at other times. The 
people were oppressed, but the courts of Israel 
and Judah were splendid and luxurious ; and 
they doubtless boasted of their advancing re- 
finement, even when they were sinking into 
corruption and depravity. It has ever been 
the policy of the monarchs who are guilty of 
the most atrocious crimes, who shrink from no 
acts of cruelty, to promote that despotism which 
may banish the remembrance of their enormi- 
ties, and to dazzle and blind the eyes of their 



ATHALIAH. 229 

people by the glare and splendour which sur- 
rounds their court. And thus these guilty 
monarchs, by the patronage of the licentious 
festivals of heathen worship and the alluring 
rites of a corrupt religion, compelled their peo- 
ple to sin. They drowned the voice of con- 
science and prevented all reflection, 

All history has shown us that, as nations 
have been verging to their ruin, they have 
yielded themselves to criminal excess and sen- 
sual indulgence ; and the boasted periods of 
splendour and high refinement have been but 
the preludes to long seasons of national 
calamity or entire overthrow. Thus we may 
suppose it to have been with the ancient de- 
scendants of Israel. The courts were splendid 
and all the arts were patronized, while the thin 
veil of refinement was thrown over deeply cor- 
rupt manners. The people, departing from a 
holy faith, were sinking into a sullen debase- 



230 ATHALIAH. 

ment, or giving themselves to sensual indul- 
gence and brutal ferocity. 

Modern nations have followed in the foot- 
steps of the ancient world. The same idols are 
still worshipped under other names — the same 
passions rule the unholy heart. 



ESTHER. 




\ HEN Isaiah wrote, Ba- 

IL^' ^*te^,& 4 by Ion sat a queen 

mm? 

m&k among the nations, in 
the pride of pomp and 
power, in the full se- 
curity of strength ; yet 
he graphically depicted her desolation and fore- 
told her present state, while he pronounced her 
doom — a perpetual desolation. She shall never 
be rebuilt ! Her towers are fallen and her 
site marked by ruins. 

The decline of Babylon had begun. It was 
certain, although slow. Years were to pass 



232 ESTHER. 

before the sentence should be fully executed. 
At the period, when the transactions recorded in 
the book of Esther took place, Shushan was the 
royal city of Persia. We are told that in this 
— the City of Lilies — the king Ahasuerus held 
a great feast, probably in celebration of some 
recent success, or in commemoration of some 
great national event. He assembled all the 
princes and nobles of his vast empire, extend- 
ing from Egypt to India, and gave a feast or 
succession of festivities, which continued for 
more than the third of a year. 

All that oriental splendour and magnificence 
could contribute, all the expedients that eastern 
luxury could desire, to multiply the resources 
and to heighten the enjoyment of pleasure, were 
brought to aid the designs of the monarch and to 
add to the festivities of his court. 

Yet motives of policy may have combined 
with the designs of pleasure. In all ages the 



ESTHER. 283 

despot lias sought to blind and dazzle the peo- 
ple by a display of power and magnificence ; 
and the princes and nobles around, from distant 
provinces, have swelled the retinue of their at- 
tendants. 

The amusements of monarchs and of courts 
have, through all varieties of manners and 
degrees of refinement, been much the same. 
The ancient Syrian or Persian, like the modern 
British or French monarch, had his royal parks 
and forests for hunting. 

All nations have patronized the various trials 
of skill and strength, and the mimic fight has 
ever been an amusement where war was the 
great business of life. And the royal pa- 
geantry was doubtless intermingled with the 
religious ceremonies which allowed a license 
to criminal indulgence and at the same time 
offered a supposed expiation for crime. 

While these employed the day, the games 



284 ESTHER. 

of chance, the wine, the music, the movements 
of the degraded dancing-girl, and the tricks of 
the buffoon and the jester, amused the late hours 
and varied the festive scenes of the night. 

The feast was drawing to a close, and, at the 
termination of this long season of hilarity, 
Ahasuerus extended the pleasures of the 
occasion to all classes of his subjects at 
Shushan. 

He threw open his palaces and pleasure- 
grounds, his parks and gardens — always of 
vast extent around eastern palaces — and ad- 
mitted all the citizens to a feast prepared for 
them. Tents had been erected within the pre- 
cincts of the palace for the tables — and these 
tents were furnished with all the luxurious ap- 
pendages of the east — with white and green 
and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine 
linen and purple to silver rings and marble 
pillars ; while the beds — the couches around the 



ESTHER. 235 



tables, against -which the ancients reclined — 
were of gold and silver, upon a pavement of 
red and blue, and black and white marble ; 
while they gave them to drink in vessels of 
gold. Until these last days the princes and 
nobles alone had participated in the festive 
scenes; but now, as we have said, all ranks 
were allowed to share, and the citizens of 
Shushan, subjects of Ahasuerus,- thronged the 
palace and trod the royal gardens, and, enter- 
ing the tents, enjoyed all that royalty could 
offer in ancient Persia — far surpassing in costly 
splendour and elegance the entertainments of 
modern courts. And surely the monarch must 
have had strong confidence in the security of 
his government and the loyalty of his people, 
as he thus from day to day, for successive days, 
flung open to them the recesses of his palace. 

While the king thus feasted the men in the 
gardens and parks of the palace, Vashti, the 



queen, held a festival for the women within 
the secluded apartments appropriated to the 
female part of the royal household. She made 
them a feast within the house of Ahasuerus ; 
and this queenly entertainment was conducted 
with all that regard for retirement and decorum 
which accords with Eastern manners. But 
whatever the amusements of the queen and her 
train of attendants, no rumours passed the 
carefully guarded bounds of the women's apart- 
ments. At length the long season of pleasure 
came to a harmonious close. No outbreak of 
the people of Shushan, no rising of distant 
provinces, no plotting of high-born traitors had 
marred the festal pomp. Yet the season of 
pleasure is always a period of trial, and the 
seeds of remorse and repentance are almost 
invariably sown in the hours of gayety. Amid 
all this brightness, a dark cloud hung over 
Ahasuerus. On the seventh and last day, 



ESTHEK. 237 

when the heart of the king was merry — when 
he had forgotten royalty dignity and personal 
decorum, by sitting too long at the festive 
board — excited by pride and vanity, and stimu- 
lated by wine, he resolved to dazzle the eyes 
of the people by presenting to their admiration 
a gem, brighter and more lovely than any 
which sparkled in the royal crown. To verify 
his loud boasts of her matchless charms, he 
sent his chamberlain to bid the queen array 
herself in that royal attire which befitted her 
state while it displayed her beauty and pro- 
claimed her rank, and thus present herself, 
that the assembled multitudes might adinire 
her loveliness and confess his happiness. 

In Western lands, and in modern days, this 
command would convey no idea of shame or im- 
propriety. The royal consort and her train of 
fair attendants have often graced the presence 
and shared the honours of the monarch and his 



238 ESTHER. 

court, and added refinement to luxury. But 
no offer could be more opposed to all ideas of 
Eastern delicacy and propriety — more degrad- 
ing to the woman, or more offensive to the 
queen. 

By thus unveiling herself before the crowd, 
she would sink herself to the level of the most 
unworthy of her sex — while the violation of an 
established usage, in the time of such excite- 
ment and excess, might lead to the wildest 
disorder, and the queen might be exposed to 
every insult from crowds maddened by wine 
and ripe for disorder ; while the monarch him- 
self might not be able to protect her in a posi- 
tion so strange and unfitting. 

The modesty of the woman and the dignity 
of the queen alike forbade compliance with the 
strange order — and Vashti might well presume 
that, in the hour of reflection, when his senses 
had returned, the monarch would thank her for 



ESTHER. 239 

a prudence which probably alone preserved her 
dignity and his honour. 

But the passions of the king were inflamed. 
His reason was blinded, and artful courtiers, 
from motives of intrigue or pique, stimulated 
his anger. There are ever those who stand ready 
to administer to unholy passions, and who are 
watching for the fall of such as are high in place 
or favour. And still under the influence of wine, 
the rash monarch, by his own act, placed an 
inseparable barrier between himself and her 
whose charms had so lately been his proudest 
boast, and whose conduct had proved that she 
well deserved all honour and all affection. 
Vashti was separated from the king's favour ; 
and flattering sycophants extolled the act of 
folly, as a measure which gave peace and 
security to every household in the realm. 
"All the wives shall give to their husbands 
honour, both to great and small." And thus 



240 ESTHER. 

the day closed by an edict that brought sorrow 
to many hearts, and desolation even to the 
gates of the palace. 

The excitement was past. The hour of re- 
flection arrived, and " the king remembered 
Vashti." His resentment was appeased. "He 
remembered what she had done, and what was 
decreed against her." That which had been 
magnified into a crime and had given such 
deep offence, was now seen to be an act of 
wisdom and prudence — the result of true 
modesty, and that deep affection which sought 
alone the love of her husband, which shrank 
from the admiration of the crowd, and which 
ventured to disobey rather than forfeit self- 
respect and womanly pride — preferring t 
his love rather than expose his honour. An 
immutable decree — his own — separated him 
from one lately so beloved, and so truly worthy 
of high honour. 



ESTHER. 241 

The darkened and saddened aspect of the 
monarch declared his late repentance; and 
those who had precipitated the fall of the 
queen, to screen themselves, were prompt to 
devise methods of banishing the remembrance 
of the divorced Yashti. They would replace 
her by a new favourite. Yet, so surpassing was 
her loveliness, and so rare her beauty, that the 
courtiers could with difficulty find one whose 
charms might banish from memory the repudi- 
ated consort, until they sought through all 
the provinces of that vast empire for the 
fairest of the daughters of men. 

Hadassah, a daughter of Israel, a descendant 
of Benjamin, of the house of Kish, the family 
of Saul, first king of Israel, won the monarch's 
favour, and was promoted to the place of the 
disobedient but high-minded Yashti. Esther 
was an orphan, but she had been carefully 
guarded and instructed by her kinsman Mor- 



242 ESTHER. 

decai; and while we are told that the maiden 
was exceeding fair, we may believe that her 
beauty was of a high order, stamped too by 
intellect and feeling, and that the soul which 
often sustained and impelled her in her trying 
exigencies, breathed through her features and 
animated her form. Yet Ahasuerus merely 
bowed to the fair shrine. He sought not to 
awaken the response of the soul that dwelt 
within. 

When the daughter of Israel was placed upon 
the throne of Persia, and another royal feast 
proclaimed the triumph of Esther and the 
happiness of Ahasuerus, the king displayed 
his royal magnificence by the bestowal of gifts 
upon his favourites ; and the name of Esther 
was blended with other and higher associations, 
as, upon her elevation, the taxes of the burdened 
provinces were remitted and pardons granted 
to the condemned. 



ESTHER. 243 

Mordecai, the relative who had supplied the 
place of parents to Esther, was, as we have said, 
of the house of Kish. Mordecai was the Jew 
rather than the Benjamite. His heart was de- 
voted to his country. When the child of his 
adoption was taken to the palace, Mordecai dis- 
played his wise forethought in cautioning her 
against making her parentage and kindred 
known. He had been as a father to her, and a 
deep interest in the orphan of his care led him, 
day by day, to watch the gate of the palace — to 
mingle with the attendants, that he might catch 
a view of her train or gather tidings of her 
welfare. And thus, unknown as the relative 
of the fair queen, or as especially interested 
in the king, Mordecai was enabled to detect 
and reveal a plot for the assassination of 
Ahasuerus. Esther being informed of the plot, 
disclosed it to the king — the criminals were 



244 ESTHER. 

defeated and punished — but no reward was 
conferred upon Mordecai. 

The passion of Ahasuerus for his fair bride 
seems to have soon declined. The fickle volup- 
tuary sought new pleasures, and the bride so 
lately exalted to a throne was no longer an 
object of envy. Many bitter tears have been 
shed by the victims of family pride or state 
policy, when thus allied to greatness and splen- 
dour. The sacred rite has often been prostituted 
to purposes of ambition and selfishness, and hafi 
thus become a source of guilt and misery. 
Esther, in her elevation, may have shed as 
bitter tears as fell from Vashti in her banish- 
ment and disgrace. 

Thus each state has its own trials and its 
own griefs — and it has its peculiar alleviations 
too. Perhaps the progress of the narrative 
will show us the source of that influence which 



ESTHER. 245 

seems early to have estranged Ahasuerus from 
his bride. 

Among the courtiers of the king there was 
the descendant of a race long at variance with 
the Jews. The Amalekites had been the ene- 
mies of the Israelites from the infancy of the 
nation. When the tribes came up from Egypt, 
faint and weary in the desert, the Amalekites 
had fallen upon them and attempted to destroy 
them ; and during a series of ages there had 
been a war of extermination between the races. 
Nor had Amalek been subjected until Saul was 
raised to the throne and Israel had become a 
kingdom. 

When Israel and Judah had been destroyed 
or carried captive by the hosts of the Assyrians, 
the remaining Amalekites seem likewise .to 
have been carried into the east, either as prison- 
ers or allies. And now, from among all his 
courtiers, Ahasuerus had chosen, as his chief 

21* 



246 ESTHER. 

favourite and counsellor, Hainan, the son of 
Hammeclatha, a descendant of Agag — that 
king of Amalek who, as the prisoner of Saul, 
was condemned to death by Samuel, the judge 
of Israel. The descendant of a royal line and 
of an ancient race, Haman was as crafty as he 
was unprincipled and malignant, and his evil 
influence seems to have first drawn the king's 
favour from Esther. He did not know her 
lineage, but by plunging the king in every 
excess, by keeping all safe counsellors at a 
distance, he intended to increase his own in- 
fluence, and perpetuate his own power, while 
he was accumulating great wealth from the 
prodigality of his master and from the presents 
offered as bribes to obtain his favour. 

As he did not know the lineage of Esther, 
he did not persecute her ; but as he feared an 
influence that might compete with his own, he 
strove to alienate the heart of Ahasuerus from 



ESTHER. 247 

her. Hainan was advanced to honours far 
above all the native princes of the kingdom ; 
even to the first seat in counsel, to the highest 
honours in the realm, and to constant com- 
panionship of the monarch. 

As, with trains of slaves and flatterers, he 
was hastening to the audience of the monarch, 
or returning loaded with marks of royal favour, 
he passed Mordecai the Jew, seated alone — 
unknown, unheeded, without rank or wealth — 
by the gate of the palace. "Yet Mordecai 
bowed not, neither did reverence to Hainan." 
The two men seemed to represent to each other 
their respective nations ; as if all the hate and 
malice of the race, and of long ages of national 
bitterness, were concentrated in an individual. 
They met as the Israelite and the Amalekite ; 
and the memories of centuries of aggression 
and injuries, of shame and defeat, were crowded 
into the present moment. Mordecai saw in 



248 ESTHER. 

Haman, not only the foe to his race, but the 
crafty, unprincipled, unholy counsellor, who 
had already alienated the heart of the mo- 
narch from his youthful bride, and whose per- 
nicious influence was spreading blight and cor- 
ruption, misery and destruction — through an 
empire. 

Every feeling of the Jew, every principle of 
an upright, sincere heart forbade Mordecai to 
pay the homage demanded of him by Haman. 
Every sentiment of national pride, of family 
honour, of personal dignity, of self-respect, arose 
to deter the descendant of Israel from showing 
honour to the hereditary foe of his people and 
the persecutor of his faith. 

Haman, at the same time, saw in Mordecai 
the descendant of those who had triumphed 
over his nation and destroyed his ancestors. 
The descendant of Agag, the captive of Saul, 
he might naturally vent his indignation upon 



ESTHER. 249 

the tribe that humbled his house and subjected 
his nation and destroyed his ancestors. The 
contempt with which Mordecai regarded him 
roused all the ancient malignity of the Ainalek- 
ite, and his hot blood called for vengeance. 

Yet he thought it a foul shame to lay hands 
on Mordecai alone. The ruin of one man 
would not heal his wounded pride. He medi- 
tated a deeper and more deadly revenge. He 
resolves to sweep the remnant of the Jews 
from the face of the earth ! 

The proposed plan displays at once all his 
cruelty and malignity, and all his crafty in- 
fluence over Ahasuerus, while it proves the 
king too much immersed in pleasure, or too 
much subjected to his artful favourite, to regard 
the welfare of his subjects or the interests of 
his kingdom. 

Superstitious and idolatrous, Haman cast 
lots day after day, for successive days, that a 



250 ESTHER. 

fortunate one might decide the day to be 
chosen for the work of death on which lie wu 
bent. And this accomplished, he hastened to 
secure the edict from the king. Surely the 
monarch must have been sunk in wine and 
debauchery who could thus unhesitatingly 
accede to the proposition to murder, in cold 
blood, thousands of unresisting subjects, when 
the worst allegation preferred by their enemy 
was "that their laws were diverse from all 
people." Yet here was the very principle 
of religious persecution; and as sanguinary 
edicts as these, enacted against God's ancient 
people, have been too often issued in more 
modern days, and no Mordecai has sat at the 
gate of the palace, mutely to plead for mercy — 
no Esther has staked her life upon the attempt 
to avert the doom ! 

By the offer of an enormous bribe, to be 
collected from the plunder of those doomed to 



ESTHER. 251 

death, Haman sought the acquiescence of the 
king in his scheme. And though he refused 
the bribe, yet he bade Haman do with the 
people and their possessions as seemed best to 
him; giving him his signet ring, he seems to 
have divested himself of all care and responsi- 
bility, and Haman having issued the edict 
and commanded the couriers to distribute the 
royal mandate, they both returned to their 
pleasures. " The king and his counsellor sat 
down to drink." 

No elaborate essay upon the character of Aha- 
suerus, no analysis of the arts of Haman, could 
so display the indolent, luxurious, self-indulgent, 
voluptuous monarch, or so illustrate the secret 
of the favourite's power. The companion of his 
pleasures, he was careful to minister to all the 
sensual indulgence that could lead him to forget 
his duty and the obligations of right and justice 
incumbent upon the ruler of a great people. 



252 ESTHER. 

Of all the cruel and bloody mandates issued 
by despotic monarchs, and designed to answer 
either the purposes of private malice or unholy 
policy, few, if any, have exceeded this which was 
directed against the ancient people of Jehovah. 
The Jews who had returned to their own land 
were included in this proscription, for Judea was 
at this time a tributary of the Persian empire. 

" Then were the king's scribes called, the 
thirteenth day of the first month, and there 
was written according to all that Haman had 
commanded, unto the king's lieutenants, and to 
the governors that were over every province, 
and to the rulers of every people of every pro- 
vince, according to the writing thereof ; and to 
every people after their language, in the name 
of King Ahasuerus, was it written, and scaled 
with the king's ring. And the letters were 
sent by posts into the king's provinces, to de- 
stroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews— 



ESTHER. 253 

both young and old, little children and women, 
in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of 
the twelfth month." 

Thus we see all the machinery of this power- 
ful government put in motion to crush the 
Jews — a people widely dispersed and weak from* 
their recent captivity and overthrow. As no 
crime was specified, so there was no offer of 
pardon or exemption on any terms ; while to 
make it more distinctly understood, the terms 
which indicated their fate were singularly 
multiplied. " To destroy, to hill, to cause to 
ferishy And while the murder of a nation 
was thus made a legal execution, the mode was 
left to the option of the executioners ; and every 
torment that malignity could devise might be 
inflicted, while all were stimulated by the pro- 
mise of the plunder of their victims — -" and to 
take the spoil of them for a prey." 

What scenes of horror, of suffering, would 



254 ESTHER. 

have followed the execution of this barbarous 
edict ! The whole empire had probably been 
deluged in blood — for man, like the inferior 
animals, seems maddened by the taste of blood 
— and one cruelty is but the prelude and. pro- 
vocation of another; and in the time of strife, 
while all were made executioners of the law, 
private malice would confound others with the 
proscribed, and few could be safe in the hour 
of commotion. 

When this edict was published, and while 
Ahasuerus and Haman sat down to indulge in the 
pleasures of the table, all the city of Shushan 
was perplexed, confounded, and troubled — won- 
dering what motives, what state policy, what 
strange conspiracy, had led to this sanguinary 
enactment against a people long dwelling 
among them — a nation who had furnished 
counsellors and ministers to their wisest mo- 
narchs. 



ESTHER. 255 

When Mordecai saw what was done, he rent 
his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes, and 
went out into the midst of the city and cried with 
a loud and bitter cry. He published — he could 
not conceal — his grief and terror; and his 
crafty foe perhaps exulted in his misery. The 
long struggle between the Amalekite and the 
Israelite seemed now to be concluded. The 
fall of the Jews seemed to be sealed. All the 
power of the Persian empire was arrayed 
against them. They were prisoners in her 
different provinces, appointed to execution! 
All human power and authority and presump- 
tion of success was on the side of Haman, and 
against his intended victims. 

Mordecai had no hope on earth. His trust 
was alone in the God of his fathers— the God of 
Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob — the God 
often defied by Amalek. In his distress he pre- 
sented himself, clothed in sackcloth, at the gate 



256 ESTHER. 

of the rojal palace ; but no one arrayed in the 
garb of sorrow might enter the haunts devoted to 
luxurious pleasure. Yet the sight of his distress 
and the tones of his deep grief arrested the at- 
tention of the attendants of the queen, and her 
chamberlain reported the circumstances to her. 

No tokens of sympathy, no expression of con- 
dolence, however grateful, could assuage the 
grief of Mordecai in this hour of terror and 
alarm ; and even though commanded by the 
queen, he declined to lay aside the tokens of wo, 
while he diligently sought to convey to the se- 
cluded Esther an account of all the machinations 
of Haman, and the assurance of the imminent 
danger to which her nation was exposed, and 
in which she was involved. He not only sent 
her a copy of the edict which condemned the 
Jews, but he charged her to supplicate the 
king on their behalf. 

The young queen must have felt like one 



ESTHER. 957 

awakened from a sleep to find himself upon the 
brink of a precipice. Her situation was full 
of danger. The flush of royal favour was past. 
She was neglected and forgotten. Her splendid 
palace was indeed but a prison, and her lordly 
consort might prove her executioner. For a long 
time she had not seen the king or received the 
least token of royal favour or remembrance, 
and a new favourite might have succeeded her 
in the court of the capricious voluptuary. Yet 
she was sternly charged by Mordecai to rouse 
herself, meet the peril, and, if possible, save her 
people, while he taught her to recognise the 
designs of a wise Providence in her elevation. 

"Then Mordecai commanded to answer 
Esther, Think not with thyself that thou shalt 
escape in the king's house, more than all the 
Jews. For if thou altogether holdest thy peace 
at this time, then shall there enlargement and 
deliverance arise to the Jews from another 

22* 



258 ESTHER. 

place ; but thou and thy father's house shall 
be destroyed : and who knoweth whether thou 
art come to the kingdom for such a time as 
this?" 

In the appeals of Mordecai to Esther, we 
may recognise the principles upon which he 
had trained her. The sense of duty, the ob- 
ligations of religion, the call to self-sacrifice 
and exertion, had all been instilled while Esther 
was in private life, and they bear their fruit on 
the throne. Yet there must have been a con- 
flict in the heart of Esther, before she could 
adopt the decision which might accelerate the 
doom of her people, while, if her appeal failed, 
her own fate was sealed with their's. 

Surrounded by all the splendour of the 
court, with all the pleasures that pomp and 
power can command, with troops of menials 
treading marble halls, with the more genial 
luxuries of fair flowers and pure fountains and 



ESTHER. 259 

soft music — Esther felt the insufficiency of all 
that earth can yield in the hour of sorrow and 
trial. We may almost fancy that we see her, 
with lofty brow and pale cheek, her dark soft 
eye fixed in thought, and the compressed lip 
telling of the firm resolve. She has decided ! 
She will venture the loss of royal favour, and 
life itself, to secure the safety of her people. 

" I WILL GO IX TO THE KIXG, AND IP I PERISH 

— I perish." Words more simple, yet sublime 
in their high meaning, have seldom been re- 
corded. Strong purpose and high resolve call 
for but few words. 

Yet Esther relied upon a power higher than 
that of Ahasuerus. She may have recalled the 
history of her nation ; she may have remembered 
all the interpositions of Divine mercy in past 
extremities ; and doubtless she relied upon those 
promises for the future which induced in Mor- 
decai a confident hope of deliverance. She re- 



2G0 ESTHER. 

membered that Jehovah — the God of Israel — 
hears the prayers of the humble and the con- 
trite. She appointed a solemn fast of three 
days, in which the Jews of Shushan should 
humble themselves and remember her before 
the God of their fathers. 

A more eminent instance of simple depend- 
ence upon the Divine interposition, or of entire 
reliance upon the voice of prayer, has seldom if 
ever, occurred. There was no resort to out- 
ward ceremonies to awaken a deeper feeling, or 
to atone for the want of it by a formal observ- 
ance. There was no altar, no sacrifice, no 
long procession, no promised offering, no resort 
to temple or priest, but there was the call upon 
God from the depth of the soul — the simple, 
unfailing trust of the heart, the personal 
humiliation, the individual prayer, the united 
offerings of supplication and confession from a 
whole people. There was the simple faith that 



ESTHER. 261 

relies on the Divine power and pleads the 
Divine promises with submission to the Divine 
will. It was a strange contrast to the sensual, 
gross, superstitious, and unholy rites of the 
heathen, while from its deep spiritual meaning, 
and from the entire absence of all merely formal 
observance, it was both a precedent and a 
model for future ages, and for the holy spiritual 
worshipper of other days. 

It was no heartless service, no formal act 
of worship rendered by the Jews of Shushan, 
when Esther called upon them to pray and 
to fast with her and for her. While the queen 
and her maidens fasted in the recesses of the 
palace, in many a lowly home or quiet cham- 
ber were gathered the race of Esther, to 
commit her and themselves to Jehovah, to 
beseech him to forgive the sins of his people 
and save them, for his mercy's sake, in this 
hour of their extremity. Mingled with their 



262 ESTHER. 

personal apprehension and anxiety for their 
•wives and their children -would be thoughts 
of "the daughter of their people" — their beau- 
tiful queen — so young, so fair, so lately exalted 
to the pinnacle of honour and glory ; adorned 
with gems and wreathed with flowers, the pride 
of a monarch and the ornament of a court ; 
now, neglected, abject, forsaken — included in 
the doom of her race, prostrate in some se- 
cluded apartment of the palace — her royal ap- 
parel exchanged for sackcloth and ashes — still 
cleaving to the God of her fathers, and still iden- 
tifying herself with her kindred and country- 
men. "Whether they regarded her royal state, 
her tender years, her bitter desolation, or her 
heroic resolution, all the sympathies of the 
heart, all the purest feelings of the nation 
would be called forth in her behalf. 

Other feelings would find a place in the 
hearts of the Jews as they contemplated their 



ESTHER. 263 

present state. The last deed of the Amalekite 
would bring to recollection the injuries of ages. 
This Hainan, who now, in a time of profound 
peace and full security — while both races were 
exiles from the land of their fathers — had 
plotted the ruin of their nation, the total ex- 
termination of their race ; who had doomed the 
feeble and helpless, the little one and the aged, 
to perish with the strong man in his might ; 
this Haman was the son of those who fell upon 
the tribes, faint and weary, in the wilderness ; 
who had pursued them with inveterate hatred ; 
who had ever joined with their foes or stood 
ready to attack them in their defenceless 
state. 

When we recollect that the conspiracy of 
Haman but closed the long train of injuries 
inflicted on Israel by Amalek, we shall not so 
much wonder at the feelings sometimes ex- 
pressed by the Jew. The character of the 



264 ESTHER. 

tribe was still the same — their course through 
all years was unaltered. And now, while 
Amalek has perished and the Jew survives, 
we can form no just estimate of that national 
feud. Haman was a type of his race — artful, 
cruel, treacherous, and bloody ; and what the 
Roman was to Hannibal, what the ancient Per- 
sian was to Greece, what the Turk is to modern 
Greece, what Russia is to the Pole, such was 
the Amalekite to the Jew. 

While Esther had manifested her sense of 
dependence upon the eternal Ruler of nations, 
and her faith and reliance upon the God of her 
fathers, by humbling herself before him and 
relying upon his protection and interposition 
in this hour of darkness, she showed, too, a 
knowledge of the human heart, not often ac- 
quired at her age ; an instinctive insight into 
the character and the motives of those around 
her, with the power of adapting herself to cir- 



ESTHER. 265 

cumstances, that has seldom been displayed in 
one so young, combined with so many of the 
higher qualities of the woman. 

She knew the weak point in the character 
of Ahasuerus, and she forgot not the power of 
beauty, the influence of personal charms, as 
she arrayed her fair form in the rich and 
splendid vestments that so well became her, 
and summoned all the aid of oriental art and 
elegance to her toilette, that her presumption 
might be forgiven in her loveliness — that favour 
won by her beauty might be extended to her 
nation ; and if she felt the hope of pleasing, as 
she surveyed herself in the polished metallic 
mirror, decked with the magnificence of a 
royal bride and adorned with the gifts of him 
whose favour she would seek, her heart might 
have sunk too at the remembrance of the favour 
she had once won and lost. In assuming the 
crown placed upon her brow by Ahasuerus, 



266 ESTHER. 



there was a tacit claim to her royal rights ; for 
that gemmed circlet was not only a badge of 
rank, but a pledge of affection — a token of 
honour and royal favour, which elevated her 
above the throng of beauties who filled the 
courts of the palace. Had she arrayed herself 
in sackcloth, had she appeared as a mourner, 
an afflicted suppliant, she would probably have 
found the royal voluptuary more anxious to 
banish one who disturbed his pleasures, than to 
redress the grievances that appealed to his 
justice. 

Yet it must have been with trembling limbs 
and a beating heart that she stood before 
Ahasuerus; and, by entering his presence 
unbidden, she made her mute appeal to his 
mercy. 

And strange, at that unwonted place and 
hour, must have appeared the beautiful vision 
to the king, while courtiers and attendants 



ESTHER. 267 

stood in silent amazement. There was but one 
anxious moment before the sceptre was extended ; 
the trembling queen touched it, and thus was 
encouraged to prefer her petition for any favour 
that the royal hand could bestow. The presence 
of Esther seems to have revived at once the 
fondness of the monarch, and all his coldness 
and indifference vanished like the mist before 
the rising sun. All the arts of Haman had been 
needed to wean him from her and to teach him 
to forget her. How rarely does a vile, unholy 
counsellor or companion seek to corrupt a pri- 
vate man, or a prince, or a ruler, without striving 
first to undermine the influence of the virtuous 
wife, mother, or sister! 

"Warily does the royal suppliant present her 
request, still uncertain of the degree of favour 
on which she might rely. She offered no peti- 
tion that could embarrass the king. She made 
no complaint of past neglects. She uttered no 



268 ESTHER. 

word of upbraiding for forgotten vows; but 
delicately implying that his presence was the 
source of her happiness, that this had con- 
strained her to break through all the formal 
observances of courtly restraint and endanger 
life itself, she besought him to honour her 
by attending a banquet which she had prepared. 
Thus she avoided the awakening of the sus- 
picions of Hainan by even asking to see the 
monarch without his presence. Including him 
in her invitation, she allayed all jealousy of 
a wish to exert an influence inimical to his, 
while she thus offered an additional inducement 
to Ahasuerus to honour her feast. 

By a strong effort and great self-command, the 
young queen retained her calmness and preserved 
her grace and gayety. And even when the ban- 
quet had closed and the guests had retired, and 
the king again asked her to prefer her petition, 
she did not venture to prefer that which -was 



ESTHER. 269 

nearest her heart. His favour was too uncertain 
and his favourite too powerful. She only be- 
sought his presence again as a guest, and again 
his favourite was included in the invitation. 

The Jews were still lying low before their 
God. When the feast in the palace was bro- 
ken up, and the gates were shut, the high walls 
cast their shadows upon the moat. The senti- 
nels still moved with measured tread. The lights 
gradually disappeared, except those that told of 
some one watching over the sick or dying, or some 
chance-beam betraying a late carousal. In the 
palace, the soft footfall of the attendants in 
the antechambers, could not disturb the slum- 
bers of the monarch, while strains of sweetest 
music were ready to lull him to repose, as 
warder and sentinel kept watch over his safety. 
But still "that night the king could not sleep ;" 
and wakeful, restless, solitary, he commanded 
his attendants to bring him the archives of 



270 ESTHER. 

his kingdom, and read to him the records of his 
reign. Strange request ! How few monarchs 
would care thus to review the past, and force 
themselves to the judgment awaiting them from 
a higher tribunal and from future a 

It was not chance which held the eyes of the 
king waking. It was not chance which drew 
his attention to the conspiracy defeated by 
Mordecai, and to the investigation of the treat- 
ment he had received for so high a service. 
No reward, no honour had been conferred 
upon one who had saved the life of the sove- 
reign. A strange forgetfulness or neglect of 
the prime minister of the realm ! While Ahasu- 
erus was devising some mode of requiting the 
obligation due to one who had rendered the 
state important service, he called for a coun- 
sellor, and was told that Hainan was without, 
in the court. 

Hainan left the banquet of Esther in all the 



ESTHER. 271 

assurance of royal favour. He had attained 
to honours which distinguished him above all 
the subjects of the Persian empire. He had 
received distinctions which elevated him above 
even the princes and nobles of the kingdom ; 
and in his pomp and power he passed, with his 
train of attendants, menials, flatterers, and 
followers, through the gates of the royal palace, 
"the observed of all observers;" and as he 
came into the thronged thoroughfare that led 
from the royal abode, all did him homage and 
showed him reverence — save one. 

Mordecai, the Jew, still sat at the king's gate — 
probably, still wrapped in sackcloth. His eye 
met that of Haman, but it quailed not. It was 
a stern, reproving glance ! And while all others 
did lowliest obeisance, Mordecai neither bowed 
nor uncovered his head. 

There was no word — there was no reproach — 
but there was a silent defiance, that conveyed to 



272 ESTHER. 

the soul of Haman an assurance of disgrace and 
defeat, and that told him he was despised, 
amid all his honours and prosperity. He has- 
tened to his home. He gathered his household 
around him and told them of his riches, his ho- 
nour, his prosperity, and the assurance his large 
family afforded him that his riches would descend 
in his own line, and that his ancient lineage and 
royal race should thus be perpetuated. He told 
them of the high honour that day received at the 
royal feast, and of a like honour in reserve for 
the morrow. But still his pride was mortified 
by Mordecai's course. "All this availeth me 
nothing," he said, " so long as I see Mordecai, 
the Jew, sitting at the king's gate." Wretched, 
malignant man ! What a picture of the power 
and force of evil passions — of that selfishness 
which could find its happiness in the misery 
and suffering of others ! 

His hatred of Mordecai seems the more in- 



ESTHER. 273 

sane, when we remember that Haman held his 
fate in his hands, or rather had actually sealed 
his doom. He might well forego forms of re- 
verence from the man he had doomed to death. 
Yet the desire for the humiliation of Mordecai, 
for some token of abasement and fear, seems to 
have absorbed all other feelings; and as this 
was the only thing withheld, so it was the 
only thing desired. To soothe the disgust 
and allay the indignation of Haman, the family 
council decreed the immediate death of Morde- 
cai, and they doomed him to the gallows — a 
most ignominious death. While this instrument 
of his destruction was in preparation upon the 
grounds of Haman, he sought Ahasuerus, that 
the sentence might be ratified. He who had 
given him the power to murder a nation, would 
surely assent to forestalling the doom of an 
individual ; and Mordecai's disobedience to the 
royal order, his disrespect to the minister who 



274 ESTHER. 

represented the authority of the sovereign and 
the laws of the realm, seemed to offer a fitting 
pretext. 

While Haman was waiting in the antecham- 
ber for audience, Ahasuerus was resolving some 
mode of requiting Mordecai; and, ever prone 
to rely on favourites and counsellors, he was 
unable to decide for himself; so he sought 
advice from his favourite courtier, who was so 
near at hand. To him the question was sub- 
mitted: "What shall be done to the man 
whom the king delighteth to honour?" Ever 
selfish, ever intent upon his own promotion, 
and constantly loaded with marks of royal 
favour, Haman very naturally presumed that 
fresh honours were destined for him, and that 
he was to be allowed to designate the very 
marks of favour which he most desired. 

"Now Haman thought in his heart, to whom 
would the king delight to do honour more than 



ESTHER. 275 

to myself?" And so he answered the king: 
" To the man whom the king delighteth to 
honour, let the royal apparel be brought which 
the king useth to wear, and the horse that the 
king rideth upon, and the royal crown which is 
set upon his head. And let this apparel and 
horse be delivered to the hand of one of the 
king's most noble princes, that they may array 
the man withal whom the king delighteth to 
honour, and bring him on horseback through 
the streets of the city, and proclaim before 
him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom 
the king delighteth to honour." 

If Haman intended this as a mere vain- 
glorious display — an impressive pageant, de- 
signed to publish to the people the high dignity 
of royal favour which he personally enjoyed — it 
would not be without meaning ; but we cannot 
but think that, according to Eastern usage, there 
was a deeper significance in the ceremony. 



276 EST II Eli. 

The customs of the East are almost immuta- 
ble, and there was much similarity between 
those of Egypt, Assyria and Persia. When 
Joseph was exalted to be ruler of Egypt, he was 
clothed in royal vestments, and passed in tri- 
umphant procession through the city, while all 
were called upon to bow the knee before him. 
Daniel was clothed in scarlet and in purple 
(the badges of royalty) while his honours 
were announced. But Joseph rode in the 
second chariot of Pharaoh, and his distance 
from royal state was clearly defined, while 
Daniel was declared third in the empire of the 
Medes and Persians. 

In appropriating all the badges of royalty — 
the crown, the robes, the horse, the princely 
attendance — Hainan seems to have been pre- 
paring a claim to higher honour than those of 
Joseph or Daniel ; to be even preparing to 
ascend the throne. All the homage that could 



ESTHER. 277 

be shown the subject had long been exacted. 
A nation was now under a dreadful doom 
because only one of their race withheld it; 
and now he would take to himself all the 
appendages of royal state ! 

A sudden tumult in the palace, a popular 
outbreak, so common with despotic govern- 
ments, might easily be accomplished, and 
Haman might ascend the throne of Ahasuerus 
— for the lines of descent seem to have been 
not unfrequently changed in the Persian em- 
pire ; and in the convulsions of despotic states, 
even slaves have mounted the thrones of their 
masters. 

Whether, in his designs, he merely sought the 
gratification of a present vain-glorious ambition 
or was preparing for a higher destiny, the re- 
vulsion must have been most overwhelming, 
the change and surprise inexpressible, when 



278 ESTHER. 

the announcement and command of the king 
fell upon his car. 

"Make haste!" said he, "take the apparel, 
and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even 
so to Mordecai the Jew, who sitteth at the 
king's gate. Let nothing fail that thou hast 
spoken." You have devised the very highest 
honour that I can render : now confer it on the 
man I designate. 

The Eastern despots are arbitrary; and 
Haman, confounded and petrified, ventured no 
remonstrance. He bowed and obeyed. He 
departed as the messenger of honour to Mor- 
decai the Jew. Whatever the malignant and 
bitter feelings of his heart, he dared not give 
expression to them. He was compelled to 
serve the man he hated, to confer the highest 
honour on the man he had doomed to the 
deepest obloquy, publicly to bow before one 
whom he hoped to trample beneath his feet ! 



ESTHER. 279 

With what contending feelings must he have 
delivered the mandate of the king to Mor- 
decai ! What strong emotion must have con- 
vulsed his soul ! Yet the most powerful feel- 
ings are seldom displayed. The green sod 
covers the pent volcano, and a slight trembling 
alone denotes the action of the devouring ele- 
ment. It is all repose and calmness on the 
surface while the billows of flame are raging 
beneath. 

Thus the aspect of the courtier was calm, 
though sullen, while with his own hands he 
acted as chamberlain to the Jew and arrayed 
him in robes of royalty and honour. We may 
imagine a group for a painter, in Hainan, dark, 
malignant, and sullen — and Mordecai, calm, 
proud, unbending, receiving service from his 
enemy. And after having with his own hands 
arrayed the new object of royal favour, Haman 
was placed at the head of the proud war-horse, as 



280 ESTHER. 

he slowly bore the Jew through the multitude, 
who thronged the street " to behold the man 
whom the king delighteth to honour." We 
seem to see him — the proudest, the most arro- 
gant of men — with bowed head and averted eye, 
while Mordecai sits erect and firm, in all the 
dignity of conscious worth. 

As they slowly proceed through the thronged 
thoroughfare, obstructed by crowds who came 
to gaze upon the pageant, many a significant 
sneer or half-uttered jest would convey to Ha- 
inan a sense of his degradation in appearing as 
the groom of the despised Jew. 

When the ceremonies were over, Mordecai 
again appeared at the gates of the palace. No- 
thing in the apparent condition of the two was 
changed, and the pageant may have seemed like 
a dream to Mordecai. He was only anxious to 
know the proceedings and fate of Esther. Yet 



ESTHER. 281 

he must have gathered hope for the future, as 
he still trusted and waited upon God. 

But a dark cloud had fallen upon Haman. He 
foreboded his doom. He -was humbled, disap- 
pointed, degraded, disgraced. He had been pa- 
raded, before the multitudes, the menial of the 
Jew. He had been forced to confer on the man 
he hated the very honours his soul most coveted. 
"And Haman hasted to his house mourning and 
having his head covered." And he told his wife 
and the friends whom he had gathered to consult 
upon the fall of the Jew, all that had befallen 
him. And clear, far-sighted, daring, and unscru- 
pulous, the wife who had counselled Mordecai's 
destruction, foretold to Haman his own doom. 
"If Mordecai be of the Jews, before whom 
thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail 
against him, but shall surely fall before him." 

And they were probably counselling some 
measures for his personal safety; for when 



282 ESTHER. 

they were yet talking, came the king's chamber- 
lain, and hasted to bring Haman to the feast 
Esther had prepared. 

As the feast proceeded, the king entreated 
Esther to ask some gift that he might bestow 
as a token of favour, or a pledge of affection. 
And then Esther, with a simple fervour, force, 
and dignity, and with the pathos of true feel- 
ing, offered her supplication for herself and 
her nation. "And Esther answered the king 
and said, If I have found favour in thy sight. 
king ! and if it please the king, let my life 
be given me at my petition, and my people at 
my request. For we are sold — I and my peo- 
ple — to be destroyed, to be slain, to perish.*' 
She quotes the words of Raman's edict, and 
then adds, "But if we had been sold for bond- 
men and bond-women, I bad held my peace, 
although the enemy could not countervail the 
king's damage," nor recompense the loss of so 



ESTHER. 283 

many of the king's useful citizens and peaceful 
subjects. Nothing could be more sweet, gentle, 
submissive, and truly dignified than her appeal. 
And the imagination and astonishment of the 
king are graphically displayed in his answer. 
Who is he ? Where is he that hath presumed 
in his heart to do so ? Who has dared to con- 
spire against one so near my person, so exalted 
by my favour? 

Confounded, amazed — and probably for the 
first time suspecting the Jewish extraction of 
the queen — Hainan was still speechless when 
Esther made her direct and firm reply : " That 
adversary, that wicked man, is Haman," here 
in the royal presence — here in the full blaze of 
royal favour. 

In the conscious justice of her cause, she had 
desired to be confronted with the man she 
accused, and he was present, that he might 
enjoy every opportunity of defence, if inno- 



284 ESTHER. 

cent ; and if guilty, that he might receive the 
just reward of his deeds. The king was filled 
with wrath at this proof of the presumption and 
malice of his favourite, and he left the banquet- 
ing-room and went into the palace-garden. 

Haman, quick to read the feelings of his mas- 
ter, "saw that wrath was determined." Unable 
to escape the watchful attendants, and moved 
by terror, he approached the royal couch of 
Esther to beseech her, whom he had greatly in- 
jured, to intercede for him. And while he was 
thus engaged, the king re-entered the banquet- 
ing-house. His wrath was rekindled. The im- 
prudence of Haman hastened the doom his 
crimes had provoked. The excited monarch, wit- 
nessing his apparent familiarity, accused him of 
designs of which his previous presumption might 
show him capable. His sentence was pronounced 
— his doom was sealed. The attendants covered 
his face, (a most significant act, still retained in 



ESTHER. 285 

Eastern courts,) and he was carried from the 
royal presence-chamber, and hung upon the very 
gallows he had erected for Mordecai. The 
flowers which were gathered for the feast and the 
wreaths entwined for his brow were still fresh. 
The succeeding interview of Ahasuerus with 
his still loved and more than beautiful consort, 
must have been one of no slight interest. There 
was much to unfold and to explain ; there was 
something to confess and to forgive ; and as 
the character of Haman was now exposed and 
his acts were revealed, the king may have 
regarded himself as the bird escaped from the 
fowler. Esther revealed her lineage; while 
the rising favour of Haman, the dangers to be 
anticipated from his hatred to her nation, well 
justified the prudent caution of Mordecai. As 
the queen told the king in what relation Mor- 
decai stood to her, Mordecai was brought be- 
fore him; and the former honour proved but 



286 ESTHER. 

indeed the installation into the highest offices 
of trust, while the vast possessions of Hainan 
were conferred on Esther, and Mordccai was 
appointed her steward. 

Yet, while the royal favour and protection 
was extended to these individuals, the edict 
was still in force against the race, and again 
Esther besought the king to interpose his power 
and protection. The laws of the Medes and 
Persians, however impolitic and unjust, could 
not be repealed. The king had no power over the 
statutes he had made. Like the deeds of life, once 
passed, they were unchangeable. He might 
regret the act, he might deprecate the influ- 
ence thus put in operation, but he could neither 
recall nor cancel them; and one instance at- 
tempted might have destroyed the royal power. 

Although Hainan was removed, his family 
were numerous, and there was doubtless a large 
class of his ancient tribe who viewed him as the 



ESTHER. 287 

lineal descendant of their mo-narchs and entitled 
to their allegiance. They expected to share 
his triumphs, and, disappointed and exasperat- 
ed, they would be ready to avenge his death. 
Hainan being recognised as the highest officer 
of Ahasuerus and as his chief counsellor as 
well as favourite, he had great power and 
influence, and doubtless had a large party in 
his interests — either won by past favours or 
hope of future wealth and honour. At the 
same time all the discontented and turbulent of 
the land would be ready to join an outbreak 
which made the murder of any Jew lawful, 
where it could be accomplished, and which 
gave their possessions to those who were their 
destroyers. 

All that Ahasuerus could do to avert the 
threatened extermination of the children of 
Israel, was to allow them to defend themselves 
if any dared to attack them The whole em- 



288 ESTHER. 

pire was convulsed with the desperate struggle 
between the Jews and the faction of Haraan ; 
and while the royal authority aided the Jews 
in Shushan, so that they were entirely victori- 
ous, seventy-five thousand of their assailants 
perished in the provinces, where we are told 
the Jews gathered themselves together and 
stood for their lives ; and it is recorded to 
their honour, that upon the spoil of their ene- 
mies they laid not their hands. And all this 
suffering and blood was the result of the policy 
of Haman. The Jews were not the aggressors, 
although they came off victors. 

It was the last conflict between the nations of 
Amalek and Israel, and threatening and pro- 
phecy were thus fulfilled while both nations were 
strangers and exiles from their own lands; and 
while the tribe of Amalek perished, the sons of 
Haman, who probably led the conflict in Shu- 
shan, were condemned to the same ignominious 



ESTHER. 289 

death which their father had suffered. We infer 
their actual guilt from the fact that they seem to 
be unmolested until the day appointed for the 
extermination of the Jews. As leaders of the 
tumult they deserved the doom they received. 

The lot is from the Lord ; and the day of 
vengeance thus deferred from Haman's regard 
to the casting of the lot, gave the Jews full 
time to prepare themselves to resist their foes, 
and defend themselves after the issuing, of the 
second edict, by which they were empowered to 
act on their own defence, and to repel openly 
by armed resistance. 

The book of Esther is one of the most beauti- 
ful and variously instructive and interesting 
portions of the Old Testament. While it illus- 
trates the providential care of Jehovah over all 
his people, and his readiness to hear their 
prayers and interpose for their deliverance, it 
shows too that he ruleth over all the nations 



290 ESTHER. 

of the earth, and that all the arts of intriguing 
men in courts and cabinets, the various changes 
which occur, either affecting nations or indi- 
viduals, are all allowed to promote his infinite 
designs — all accomplishing his eternal plans. 
While his people, like Esther and Mordecai, 
gladly co-operate in the designs of the Almighty, 
his enemies are made the unwitting and unwill- 
ing instruments of advancing the same designs, 
and are accomplishing his purposes for the re- 
generation of a corrupt world — for the establish- 
ment of the kingdom of the redeemed, and the 
complete redemption of the children of God. 

As we look at the book of Esther, through 
the long dark vista of intervening ages, we are 
presented with a beautiful picture of a past 
period. Nations have perished and left no 
memories ; and while all the other portion of 
our world, at that day, is shrouded in darkness 
or buried in forgetfulness, the light of revela- 



ESTHER. 291 

tion falls upon the court of Ahasuerus, and we 
see it in all the gorgeous splendour of oriental 
magnificence. 

The prosperous monarch of a powerful empire 
— munificent, prodigal, not deficient in capacity 
or heart, but indolent, and fond of luxury and 
feasting, he yields himself to the influence of 
the favourite ; and when ready to rush into the 
seductions of pleasure, he still, at times, rouses 
himself and executes his own will, asserting 
his authority by some act of despotic power, 
of justice or cruelty, as the impulse prompts — 
he is a type of a large class of those to whom 
the destinies of more modern nations have been 
committed. 

In Haman we see the courtier — crafty, 
proud, vain, ambitious, aspiring — intent upon 
personal aggrandizement, and the acquisition 
of wealth ; gaining his influence over the mind 
of the monarch by ministering to his pleasures, 



292 ESTHER. 

and maintaining it by banishing all pure influ- 
ences and crushing all nobler feelings. The 
history of Hainan is replete, too, with in- 
struction, in displaying the absorbing power 
of the selfish and malignant passions, and 
their fatal influence upon character and happi- 
ness. 

One unsatisfied desire will embitter all the 
most coveted possessions. There will ever be 
something to be achieved — some enemy to 
humble, some higher elevation to attain, some 
Mordecai in the gate, whose reverence withheld 
is more desirable than all the homage of the 
multitude bestowed. 

He who cherishes in his heart a hatred of 
a class or an individual, is nursing a scorpion 
which will poison every kind feeling. We 
must love, not only to make others happy, but 
that we may be happy ourselves. We may with- 
hold all marks of approbation from the un- 



ESTHER. 293 



worthy, and still regard them with the benevo- 
lence required by the law of love. 

Thus while Mordecai saw in Hainan the 
same persecuting spirit that had marked all his 
race ; while he saw him, unholy, unprincipled, 
securing by his acts an influence over his mas- 
ter, which he abused; prostituting the royal 
authority to the ruin of the kingdom, making 
it subserve the purpose of his own unhallowed 
ambition ; alienating the monarch from the 
queen, and inducing the disregard of the duties 
of private life as of sovereign power — Mordecai. 
as an upright, honourable, high-minded man, 
refused to render one, whose course he depre- 
cated, whose character he abhorred, the honour 
accorded even by royal favour. He neither 
bowed nor did him reverence. But he did not 
assail him. He did not form any dark and 
treacherous plots against him. He did not 
revile him. All that he sought was to lead the 



294 ESTHER. 

blinded monarch to a calm investigation into 
the proceedings of his treacherous counsellor. 
And Haman had every opportunity of repelling 
accusation and justifying himself, as he was 
ever allowed to be present when Esther made her 
charges against him. There is a world-wide 
difference between the firm, indignant disappro- 
bation with which a virtuous mind regards an 
evil man, working ill to all, and that malignant 
hatred which arises from selfishness and envy. 
and which pursues with bitterness and cruelty 
all that does not minister to its indulgence. 

If it should seem strange to us that the 
national antipathy should so long be cherished, 
we may remember that it is quite as strange 
that national character should be thus faith- 
fully transmitted through so many generations : 
and those who so confidently predict a change 
of character from the mere change of the 
circumstances of a people, may do well to 



ESTHER. 295 

ponder the facts presented by the past history 
of the races of the earth. 

There are other contrasts between the cha- 
racters of Mordecai and Haman. Hainan was 
superstitious, yet not religious. He was artful, 
selfish, treacherous, bloodthirsty, corrupt him- 
self and corrupting others, ambitious and vain- 
glorious. Mordecai was pious, upright, con- 
scientious ; fulfilling every duty, yet seeking no 
selfish aggrandizement, no wealth, no personal 
honour — even when placed in circumstances 
where he might claim them as a just reward — 
and never exerting an influence for selfish pur- 
poses ; still ready to forego and sacrifice all 
that was demanded at the call of duty. 

While we see in Mordecai the devoted wor- 
shipper of the true God, the high-minded pa- 
triot, the man of inflexible integrity — an in- 
tegrity that scorned the bad acts that would 
minister to the pride of false greatness — and a 



296 ESTHER. 

nobleness that rose above the desire for court 
favours, the strong features of his character 
are softened into beauty by his love for the 
orphan relative, his watchfulness over her 
childhood, and the interest displayed by his 
daily inquiries for her welfare. His affections 
were kind and tender, while his principles were 
unbending ; and we feel that we love the man, 
though we are constrained to render a deeper 
homage to the patriot. 

Esther is one of the most beautiful cha- 
racters in the gallery of Scripture portraits. 
Her character is peculiarly feminine ; and while 
her path is marked by events of moment, it 
appeals to our hearts in each vicissitude of her 
lot. Youth and beauty always throw a charm 
around the possessor. Faint, perishing, tran- 
sient as they are, they awaken all the sympa- 
thies of our nature ; a deep compassion, a fore- 
boding of the future ; while the knowledge of 



ESTHER. 297 

the sorrows and trials which await those to 
whom the present is so bright, heightens our 
interest. Thus in each stage of the narrative, 
Esther conies to us with all that can awaken 
sympathy and excite interest. 

The fair flower is transplanted from Judea 
to the lands of the East — a scion of a stock 
soon removed — sheltered, watched, nourished 
by the pure dews of Divine truth ; taken from 
seclusion and loneliness, where but one eye 
beheld its opening beauty, to the gardens of 
royalty ; and there, among gayer and gaudier 
flowers, like the pure lily of the valley, win- 
ning royal favour by purity, sweetness, and 
graceful loveliness. 

We follow her from her lonely home to the 
palace, and think how many fears and alarms 
mingled with the triumph of her beauty, the 
consciousness of her power, when an empire 
blessed her name and celebrated her beauty. 



298 ESTHER. 

And a deeper feeling is roused for the royal 
bride, lately so flattered, caressed, and honoured, 
now suddenly forgotten, neglected — left to the 
loneliness of her apartments or the companion- 
ship of her formal attendants, while her lord 
pursued his career of pleasure, apparently un- 
mindful of her existence. 

A bitter lot it is to the young, to be loved 
and then forgotten. And sad the contrast to 
the royal Esther, between her late elevation 
and all the incense of homage and affection then 
offered, and her present desolation. Yet it was 
a season of needful humiliation. It awoke her 
from the dream of splendour and gayety, and 
brought her back to the sober realities of life 
and its stern duties ; and it was also a season 
of preparation for the trials that awaited her. 
It brought her to seek a happiness higher than 
could be found in palaces or courts, a favour 
more desirable than that of an earthly monarch, 



ESTHER. . 299 

a love that is unfailing, a faithfulness that should 
be enduring — and thus, when the day of trial 
came, she was prepared. She could cast her- 
self upon the arm that never falters, she could 
seek the interposition of the God of her nation, 
and of each individual who trusteth in him and 
relieth upon his mercy. 

There was something "beautiful in the blend- 
ing of her conscious helplessness, her sense of 
loss of the favour of her royal lord and of the 
love and courtly honour she deserved, of her 
entire dependence upon the protection and 
interposition of Heaven, and her resolution to 
venture all for her people. 

If I perish — I perish ! If we can recall 
the recollections of our childhood, we shall 
remember the breathless interest with which we 
attended her, in fancy, to the presence-cham- 
ber and awaited the extended sceptre. All the 
excitement of romance is concentrated in the 



300 ESTHER. 

story of Esther. And as we follow the narra- 
tive of her final triumph, her restoration to the 
love of her husband, the salvation of her people, 
and the exaltation of her family, we cannot but 
pursue the train of thought and feeling, and 
fondly hope that the influence of Esther and 
Mordecai might redeem Ahasuerus from the 
vices of youth, inspire him with higher motives, 
elevate him to a loftier standard, and rouse one, 
not deficient in natural kindness or nobleness 
of capacity, from a selfish voluptuary to an en- 
lightened, able, and just ruler of a great people. 
The Jews still commemorate the feast of 
Purim, and celebrate their deliverance from 
Haman; and in all the climes and lands to 
which the race have been transported, they 
have carried the remembrance of the daughter 
of their people — the beautiful queen of ancient 
Persia, who ventured her life to ransom her 
race. 



ESTHER. 301 

We would learn from the whole history les- 
sons of sobriety, of contentment with an humble 
lot, of the duty of cherishing the spirit of love, 
of kindness, of benevolence, of repressing the 
first germ of selfishness, of malignity, of envy ; 
of dependence upon an over-ruling Providence ; 
of encouragement to prayer, to trusting and 
waiting upon God. 

" Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I 
will answer thee," is said to each contrite heart 
now, as truly as to Israel of old; and none 
who have thus truly sought the Lord in lowli- 
ness and penitence, ever sought him in vain. 
His care and protection are still around his 
people ; and although the enemies of his church 
may try her, they shall never triumph over her. 




J 



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AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION. 15 



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1. The Yoke of the New Tear to 

Sunday-school Teachers. 

2. Come up Higher. 

3. A Word to Teachers. 

4. Cultivate a Small Field. 

5. Intercourse of Sunday-school 

Teachers. 

6. Punctuality. 

7. Sunday-school Discipline. 

8. Symptoms of Weakness. 

9. Well-meant Hints. 

10. Lord, what wilt thou have me 

do? 

11. The Sunday-school Teachers 

Weapon. 

12. It is Time to Begin. 



13. The Evil and the Remedy. 

14. Teachers' Meetings. 

15. How to make the most of a 

Bay. 

16. Order. 

17. The Teacher's Motive. 

18. A Call to Consistency. 

19. Cling to Christ. A message to 

Sunday-school Teachers from 
the bed of death. 

20. The true Sunday-school Work. 

21. " Without me ye can d; 

nothing." 

22. '-Just Once!" 

23. Hints by an Old Teacher. 

24. The Retrospect of a Year. 



16 AMERICAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION. 



^crtotnrals. 



THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL JOURNAL 

Is published on the first and third Wednesday of every month, at 2b 
cents a year, in advance, or four copies for one dollar. Each number 
contains eight quarto pages, close print. 



YOUTH'S PENNY GAZETTE, 

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THE CHILD'S COMPANION 

Is published on the first day of every month, at 25 cents a year. 

Subscriptions Received 



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At the Society's Agency, No. 9 Cornhill, Boston: 

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Rev. S. Gutteau, 2 North st., Bait. Geo. L. Week Cincinnati. 

A. TV. Corey, St. Louis, Mo. 



NOTICE TO SUPERINTENDENTS, LIBRARIANS, 

TEACHERS, &c. 

Just published, a new and complete Catalogue of the looks and other 
publications of the American Sunday-school Union, to which is added an 
alphabetical list of the library books :il>ove will be fur- 

nished without charge to applicants, at any of the depositories of th« 
8ociety, or forwarded by mail when r 



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